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Abstract

His work on The World brought Descartes to discuss physiology as well.1 At the end of 1632 he writes to Mersenne:

My discussion of man in The World will be a little fuller than I had intended, for I have undertaken to explain all the main functions in man. I have already written of the vital functions, such as digestion of food, the heartbeat, the distribution of nourishment, etc., and the five senses. I am now dissecting the heads of various animals, so that I can explain what imagination, memory, etc. consist in. (AT I 263, CSMK 40)

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© 2015 Hanoch Ben-Yami

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Ben-Yami, H. (2015). Soul and Physiology. In: Descartes’ Philosophical Revolution: A Reassessment. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137512024_4

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