Descartes on Motion in The World

Abstract

In the article, I will first offer an outline of process of making of The World, followed by is a presentation and analysis of Descartes’ critique of the scholastic understanding of motion in the seventh chapter of The World, and then a presentation and brief analysis of other suppositions about motion identified in the first seven chapters of this work. I conclude by examining the rules of motion or the laws of nature that are often understood as a draft of the classic Newtonian laws of inertia. My fundamental question is: in what ways is Descartes’ God still present in the created world after the creation itself? In other words: Is the transition of motion between bodies caused by God or do bodies possess the power of causation themselves?