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Descartes the Medical Philosopher
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
The early modern mathematician and natural philosopher René Descartes had a lifelong interest in medicine and medical questions. This lecture will call attention to the extent of Descartes’ medicinal interests and argue that we cannot adequately appreciate Descartes or the history of science and philosophy in the seventeenth century unless we acknowledge the existence of medical philosophers.
Speaker
Gideon Manning
American Institute of Technology
Gideon Manning is the Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the California Institute of Technology. His research focuses broadly on the medical and life sciences as they existed from the early sixteenth century to the beginnings of the nineteenth century, at which point biology became a self-standing discipline. Currently he is trying to better understand the role of medicine and the life sciences in shaping the scientific revolution.