Beatriz Laporta

It is a question of investigating how Descartes can open the uncertain and confused knowledge in his philosophy, based on the consideration of the substantial union between soul and body. In the metaphor of the “tree of knowledge” presented in the preface to his Principles of philosophy, the root is metaphysics, the trunk is physics and the main branches are mechanics, medicine and morals. It seeks to show that it is the metaphysical "root" and the physical "trunk" that underlie the practical question of morals, the level of knowledge of experience and feeling, that is, of uncertain and confused knowledge. The Correspondence with Elisabeth of 1643 sheds new light on the way of thinking about this practical question as it looks at how the soul can move the body.