Home – Home – Jornals – Philosophy of Sciences 2023 number 2

The manifestation of the fear of the inquisition is treated as one of the range extremities of Descartes’ multilateral worldview and philosophical orientations. The point is made that the philosopher combined this fear with a sincere inner religiosity. It is noted that his religiosity was exactly like this due to almost ten years of study at a Jesuit college. And the news of the Inquisition verdict on Galileo actualized for Descartes the significance of his commitment to religious views. This commitment was manifested not only actively, but also militantly in Descartes’ speeches against two his opponents who showed it insufficiently in the philosopher’s opinion; those were the author who wished to remain anonymous and the Catholic priest Bourdin. It is revealed that due to such a degree of religiosity, Descartes was unable to adequately perceive and take into account in polemics with these authors their arguments in favor of recognizing the human mind not as an incorporeal substance, but as a product of the functioning of his corporeal brain. But if with regard to the anonymous author, Descartes had to be content with expressing his disagreement in a special article, then with regard to Bourdin, he did not limit himself to expressing his disagreement in a public polemic in the press, but also actually carried out a denunciation of the clergyman to his high-ranking church leader.