Gaynutdinov, T. R. Cartesian Note: The Problem of the Physical in Descartes Philosophy

Abstract: The article is devoted to the problem of the physical in Rene Descartes’ philosophy and successively views the process of formation of the cartographic description of the physical. The cartographic description of the physical was first used by Descartes in the XXth century and then developed by Gilles Deleuze and Jean-Luc Nancy as well as a number of other philosophers. The purpose of the present research article is to define the focal points of the body functioning in Cartesianism, some schemes of the body field and its literal machinery (Descartes’ ‘body-machine’). However, the author of the present article deviates from the dualistic interpretation of the physical in Cartesian philosophy. The author appeals to the metaphoric structure of Descartes’ texts and focuses on the analysis of particular figures of speech and style used by Descartes. The author views the relation between the internal and the external in a different light and shows that Descartes never limited the internal only to the inside of the body. Moreover, the author of the article shows that in Cartesianism the body functions mostly as the object of loss and this causes radicalization of the body: there is no object more significant than the one that has been lost. ‘Cartesian’ body is always functioning and organically redundant yet this redundancy reflects the radical emptiness of the body. This physical discourse where discussions about the body inevitably touch upon the ‘foreignness’ of the body is called ‘Cartesian note’ by the author.

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