In this paper, I follow in a critical manner some of the arguments of Berkeley taken from (An essay towards a New Theory of Vision, 1709), mostly centered against the Cartesian optic-geometry (La Dioptrique in Discours de la méthode and Essays, 1637); in particular all those referred to the visual perception in distance. This strategy of analysis will put in clear that these two philosophers, both made a research the visual phenomena from different perspectives, that is the reason why neither...

In the following lines, I will explore some Cartesian tenets (mainly derived from the first three Metaphysical meditations) that may suggest or may lead to some form of solipsism. In particular, I will pay special attention to both the dream argument and Descartes’ Devil genius, in order to evaluate how “solipsistic” these arguments are. Besides, I will examine the Cartesian conception of res cogitans, as a substance capable of existing by itself (alone).

This essay’s aim is to highlight the cartesian particularity and it’s revolutionary proposal of studying the human passions as a scientific manner; as the own author agrees in his work on the topic, declaring that his study on human passions would be similar to the one of a physician. As this “Treatise of passions” is his last work, it is in itself some sort of conclusion of the big cartesian thesis. For example, by proposing to make a scientific research of the passions we suppose the method...

Ce travail explore l’actualité de la pensée cartésienne en la confrontant surtout à l’herméneutique comme mode ou orthodoxie philosophique aujourd’hui dominant nos institutions. La figure de Descartes est invoquée ici de même dans sa qualité de pont, ou de chaînon perdu entre les cultures méditerranéenne et nordique, ou catholique et protestante, de même qu’entre la tradition et la modernité. En posant à nouveaux frais le problème de la « voie latine », cet article est aussi à sa façon une ré...