title: Illness and health in the philosophy of René Descartes
metadata.name: dc.contributor.author
metadata.value: Fokin, Sergey L.
metadata.lang: -
metadata.name: dc.date.accessioned
metadata.value: 2018-09-13T16:13:48Z
metadata.lang: -
metadata.name: dc.date.available
metadata.value: 2018-09-13T16:13:48Z
metadata.lang: -
metadata.name: dc.date.issued
metadata.value: 2018-09
metadata.lang: -
metadata.name: dc.identifier.citation
metadata.value: Fokin S. L. Illness and health in the philosophy of René Descartes. Vestnik of Saint Petersburg University. Philosophy and Conflict Studies, 2018, vol. 34, issue 3, pp. 381–390.
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.identifier.other
metadata.value: 10.21638/11701/spbu17.2018.306
metadata.lang: -
metadata.name: dc.identifier.uri
metadata.value: http://hdl.handle.net/11701/14816
metadata.lang: -
metadata.name: dc.description.abstract
metadata.value: The philosophy of René Descartes (1596–1650) plays an important part in the development
  of a “medical view”, whose archaeology was introduced in modern times by Michel Foucault
  (1926–1984) in his famous book The Birth of the Clinic (1963). However, the general medical
  conception of the philosopher hadn’t raised any interest on behalf of historians of ideas until
  recently. It is only in the beginning of the new millennium that medicals excerpts of Descartes’
  writing were translated from Latin into modern French et became available to public, which
  proves the relevance of turning to historical analysis of Descartes’ medical conception. The
  main goal of this work is to present the historical background of the development of philosopher’s views on illness and health, parallel to the evolution of his conception of medicine.
  Along with the methods of philosophical history the article turns to the methodology of « history
  of ideas » that implies rapt attention to the cultural context of that era. We establish that
  it is important to distinguish two orders of signs in Descartes’ medical conception that come
  together in the clinical picture of philosopher’s death: on the one hand, there is the relatively
  precise history of illnesses and death of the philosopher, who, all his life, opposed a healthy
  lifestyle to illness; on the other hand, there are three stages of evolution of his medical conception,
  comprised of an initially mechanistic vision of the human body as a natural machine,
  then a psychosomatic vision of interpenetration of body and soul and, finally, philosopher’s
  understanding that he needs to be his own doctor. We conclude the following: Descartes’
  death didn’t cross out the lines of medical signs in philosopher’s thinking and being, but it
  questioned them, pushing researchers to examine more closely the part that illness paid in the
  health cult that the philosopher followed during his life as well as the part that was dictated by
  the health cult in his final illness and death.
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.description.sponsorship
metadata.value: Работа подготовлена при поддержке гранта РФФИ, проект «Рене Декарт и моральная философия: метафизика, политика, теология и этика в переписке философа с принцессой Елизаветой
  Богемской, королевой Швеции Кристиной и несколькими современниками», № 17-03-50205, тип
  проекта «а(ф)».
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.language.iso
metadata.value: ru
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.publisher
metadata.value: St Petersburg State University
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.relation.ispartofseries
metadata.value: Vestnik of St Petersburg University. Philosophy and Conflict Studies;Volume 34; Issue 3
metadata.lang: -
metadata.name: dc.subject
metadata.value: Descartes
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.subject
metadata.value: philosophy
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.subject
metadata.value: medicine
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.subject
metadata.value: morals
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.subject
metadata.value: Princess Elizabeth
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.title
metadata.value: Illness and health in the philosophy of René Descartes
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.type
metadata.value: Article
metadata.lang: en_GB
resources.filename: 06-Fokin.pdf
resources.url: https://dspace.spbu.ru/bitstream/11701/14816/1/06-Fokin.pdf
resources.format: Adobe PDF
resources.size: 648,8 kB