Discours physique de la parole.

Bookseller Notes

The first edition of this important work of Cartesian philosophy. 'Geraud de Cordemoy (1626-1684) was one of the more important Cartesian philosophers during the decades immediately following the death of Descartes. While he is in some respects a very orthodox Cartesian, Cordemoy was the only Cartesian to embrace atomism, and one of the first to argue for occasionalism... His two most important works are Le Discernement du corps et de l'me (1666) and his Discours physique de la parole (1668)... Though it is in the Discernement that we find the basics of Cordemoy's philosophy, it was his Discours physique de la parole which was most identified with him. (Unlike the Discernement, the Discours was [immediately] translated into English.) The Discours opens with the question of other minds: while I know that I am a thinking thing, how can I be certain that other humans are - might not they be mindless automata who only behave as if there were clever thoughts behind their behavior? Following Descartes, Cordemoy claims that it is other humans' use of language - both in its complexity and its creativity - which assures me that they have minds, in that such communication cannot be explained on mechanical principles alone. Cordemoy then concludes this discussion, saying: "Now that it is no longer possible for me to doubt that the bodies which resemble mine are united to souls, and since I am sure that there are other men than me, I think that I ought to look with care at what remains to be known about speech"... As a testament to the significance of Cordemoy's study of language, one scholar has written that Cordemoy "picked up one of Descartes' arguments - based on the lack of true speech among animals - and developed it fully; so fully, in fact, that after Cordemoy the point was given very little attention, as if subsequent authors considered this the last word on the subject"' (SEP).