| YEAR |
BOOK |
SUBJECT |
CONTRIBUTION |
| 1637 |
Discourse de la methode;
Meteores, La dioptrique,
La geometrie. |
Philosophical discourse on Cartesian
method with
applications to meteorology, dioptrics,
and geometry. |
Laid foundation for the mechanical
philosophy; strongly anti-Aristotelian. |
| 1641 |
Meditationes de prima
philosophia |
Essay on metaphysical
and epistemological
underpinnings of Cartesian
philosophy. |
Clarified relationship between
skepticism & dogmatism in separating science and religion, mind and
matter. |
| 1644 |
Principia philosophiae |
General but systematic
discussion of physics. |
French edition, 1647. established
mechanical philosophy as cosmological alternative to
scholastic Aristotelianism. |
| 1649 |
Les passions de l'ame |
Physiological psychology. |
Systematic and mechanistic study
of nature and organisms. |
| [1664] |
Le monde, ou Traite de
la lumiere |
Systematic cosmology;
physics; optics. |
Suppressed by Descartes himself
in wake of Galileo's condemnation; Le monde was published posthumously. |
| [1664] |
L'Homme |
Anatomy, physiology;
physics of perception. |
Companion volume to above, laid
foundation for man as machine. |
