The origin of Descartes' mechanical philosophy.(Rene Descartes)

Rene Descartes' concept of a mechanical universe included the idea that organisms are machines. He reasoned that even though humans possess an immaterial soul, it still resides in a mechanical body. However, a living organism is different from a machine: Bodies develop and grow machines don't; living organisms reproduce - machines don't; bodily wounds heal - machine damage doesn't. So how did Descartes decide to equate living organisms with machines? A number of explanations have been proposed, but none of these include Descartes' early military career. In 1618, Descartes joined the Dutch army as a gentleman volunteer. There he was introduced to the world of the military engineer and to the ongoing mathematization of the art of war. He also learned the new and extensive training the army went through in order to load and discharge their firearms and maneuver with them. One unintended result of all this training was that the soldiers, acting and drilling in unison, started to behave like automata. In other wor ds, a group of organisms behaved in a machine-like manner. This concrete demonstration of a previously more abstract mechanistic concept, which he discovered in a mathematical and engineering setting, may have been the inspiration for Descartes' idea that human and animal bodies are like machines, in spite of many dissimilarities.

Key Words: Descartes, mechanical philosophy, automata, machines, Dutch army.

INTRODUCTION

The twentieth-century interaction between science and the military is well known. The prime example is the development of the atom bomb. In spite of Galileo's activity in this area, the growing interaction between science and the military in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries is not as well known. Galileo taught private courses on military architecture and fortification, developed the geometric and military compass (1), and planned to initially market his telescope to the military. This article discusses the possibility that Rene Descartes' mechanical philosophy was influenced by his early career in the military.

A New Philosophy of Nature