This conference considered the background of late Renaissance humanism, scholasticism, and skepticism in which the thought of Descartes developed and changed. Speakers from the disciplines of history, philosophy, and literature explored the historical context of Descartes’ thought.

Sponsored by the University of Chicago, the Morris Fishbein Center for the History of Science and Medicine, and the University of Illinois at Chicago; and organized by Daniel Garber, University of Chicago (now at Princeton University); and Edwin Curley, University of Illinois at Chicago (now at University of Michigan)

Friday, April 14

Session 1, at the Newberry Library

Descartes and the Scholastic Textbook Tradition
Roger Ariew, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (now at University of South Florida)

Commentator: John Carriero, Harvard University (now at University of California, Los Angeles)

Descartes et le theater: Libertés cartésiennes et figures cornéliennes
Jean-Marie Beyssade, Université de Paris-IV

Commentator: Harry Frankfurt, Harvard University (now emeritus, Princeton University)

Saturday April 15

Session 2, at the Newberry Library

On Rejecting Aristotle: Some Background to the Reception of the Discours
Daniel Garber, University of Chicago (now at Princeton University)

Commentator: Margaret Wilson, Princeton University

Frameworks of Experience in Late Renaissance Learning
Lynn Joy, The Bunting Institute and the University of Notre Dame

Commentator: Gary Hatfield, University of Pennsylvania

Session 3, at the Chicago Circle Center of the University of Illinois at Chicago

Cartesian Women
Erica Harth, Brandeis University

Commentator: Eileen O’Neill, Queens College, City University of New York (now at University of Massachusetts Amherst)

Meditating, Thinking Things over, and Mathematical Postulates
Peter Dear, Cornell University

Commentator: Philippe Desan, University of Chicago

Keynote Address, at the Newberry Library

Ausonius, the Dictionary, and the Melon: A Reverie on the Three Dreams
Alan Gabbey, Washington University in Saint Louis (now at Columbia University)

Sunday, April 16

Session 4, at Ida Noyes Hall, University of Chicago

Discoursing on Method in the University World of Descartes’ France
L. W. B. Brockliss, University of Oxford

Commentator: Bernard Crampé, University of Chicago

Panel discussion

Learn more about Center for Renaissance Studies programs.