Rene Descartes against Pierre Bourdain: Manifestations of the Im­possibility of Compromise

The author considers the manifestations of R. Descartes' uncompromisingly negative reaction to the criti­cism of his conception of the human mind as a disembodied substance by the Church figure P. Bourdain. Descartes' rejection of the interpretation of the mind as a product of the functioning of the human materi­al brain correlates with his underestimation of the reflexive component of human mental activity. Special attention is drawn to the fact that Descartes actually avoided a substantive debate with Bourdain on these issues, limiting himself to repeating those components of his position, the reasoned criticism of which he received from the opponent. It is recognized that in the end Descartes descended to the actually offensive characterization of Bourdain's critical assessment of Descartes' original position of radical doubt in the re­ality of the existence of anything, stating that he perceives this assessment as "barking". It is significant that Descartes had nothing with which to respond to Bourdain's criticism of his philosophical position in a rea­soned way, and it is also shown that the philosopher considered it permissible for himself to report his op­ponent to his ecclesiastical superiors.

Keywords: Descartes, Bourdain, philosophy, man, mind, body, incorporeality, dualism, materialistic monism, reflec­tion, reasoned criticism, inability to respond to substantive criticism, denunciation.