The Speculative History of Philosophy

Abstract

The article considers the ways in which what Descartes called “the story of my mind” is reflected in the history of ideas of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. With this expression, Descartes meant, first and foremost, an account of his own earthly or this-worldly existence, that is, the story of his embodied mind. Since for Descartes the mind is “really distinct” from the body, death of the body does not mean an end to the story of the mind. The article discusses some of the rare works of literature and philosophical historiography of the period that portray Descartes’ post-mortem fate, that is, the story of his disembodied mind.