Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-8bhkd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-08T07:53:44.777Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Princess Elisabeth and the Problem of Mind-Body Interaction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 March 2020

Deborah Tollefsen
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This paper focuses on Princess Elisabeth of Bohemia's philosophical views as exhibited in her early correspondence with Rene Descartes. Elisabeth's criticisms of Descartes's interactionism as well as her solution to the problem of mind-body interaction are examined in detail. The aim here is to develop a richer picture of Elisabeth as a philosophical thinker and to dispel the myth that she is simply a Cartesian muse.

Type
Research Article
Information
Hypatia , Volume 14 , Issue 3 , Summer 1999 , pp. 59 - 77
Copyright
Copyright © 1999 by Hypatia, Inc.

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ariew, R. 1983. Mind‐body interaction in Cartesian philosophy: A reply to Garber. Southern Journal of Philosophy 21(supplement): 33–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blom, John. 1978. Descartes, his moral philosophy and psychology. New York: New York University Press.Google Scholar
Bordo, Susan. 1987. The flight to objectivity: Essays on Cartesianism and culture. Albany: State University of New York Press.Google Scholar
Conway, Anne. 1992. The Conway letters. ed. Hutton, Sarah. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
De Bury, Blaze. 1853. Memoirs of the Princess Palatine. London: Richard Bentley.Google Scholar
Descartes, René. 1971. Oeuvres de Descartes. Vol. 3. ed. Adams, Charles and Tannery, Paul. Paris: Librairie Philosophique J. VRIN.Google Scholar
Descartes, René. 1972. Oeuvres de Descartes. Vol. 4. ed. Adams, Charles and Tannery, Paul. Paris: Librarie Philosophique J. VRIN.Google Scholar
Descartes, René. 1974. Oeuvres de Descartes. Vol. 5. ed. Adams, Charles and Tannery, Paul. Paris: Librarie Philosophique J. VRIN.Google Scholar
Descartes, René. 1985. The philosophical writings of Descartes. 3 vols. Trans. Cottingham, JohnStoothoff, Robert, and Murdoch, Dugold. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Gabbey, A. 1980. Force and inertia in the seventeenth century: Descartes and Newton. In Descartes: Philosophy, mathematics, andphysics, ed. Gaukroger, R.Totowa, NJ: Harvester Press.Google Scholar
Garber, D. 1983. Understanding interaction: What Descartes should have told Elisabeth. Southern Journal of Philosophy 21(supplement): 15–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Garber, D. 1992. Descartes' metaphysical physics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Garber, D. 1998. Elisabeth of Bohemia: Learned maiden. Paper presented at conference, Women and the History of Philosophy, University of Massachusetts at Amherst.Google Scholar
Gassendi, P. 1985. Fifth set of objections. In Vol. 2 of The philosophical wirings of Descartes. Trans. Cottingham, JohnStoothoff, Robert, and Murdoch, Dugold. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Gaukroger, Stephen. 1995. Descartes: An intellectual biography. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Godfrey, Elisabeth. 1909. A sister of Prince Rupert. London: Bodley Head.Google Scholar
Harding, Sandra. 1986. The science question in feminism. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Harth, Erica. 1992. Cartesian women. New York: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Merchant, Caroline. 1983. The death of nature: Women, ecology, and the scientific revolution. San Francisco: Harper & Row.Google Scholar
More, Henry. 1969. The immortality of the soul. In The philosophical writings of Henry More, trans. MacKinnon, Flora. New York: AMS Press.Google Scholar
Morgan, Vance. 1994. Foundations of Cartesian ethics. New Jersey: Humanities Press.Google Scholar
Nye, Andrea. 1996. Polity and prudence. In Hypatia's daughters: Fifteen hundred years of women philosophers, ed. Lopez, Linda. Indiana: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
A. I., Sabra 1967. Theories of light from Descartes to Newton. London: Oldbourne.Google Scholar
Schmitter, Amy. 1996. The passionate intellect: On the non‐opposition of intellect and emotion in Descartes. Paper presented at annual APA Central Division Conference in Chicago, IL.Google Scholar
Suarez, Fransisco. 1947. On various kinds of distinctions (Disputationes Metaphysicae, Disputatio VII de varus distinctionum generibus). Trans. Vollert, C.Milwaukee: Marquette University Press.Google Scholar
Tollefsen, Deborah. 1998. Descartes's determination. Ohio State University.Google Scholar