UNNECESSARY BOOKS, COMPENDIUMS AND "PRIMARY" BOOKS. DESCARTES BETWEEN READING AND WRITING PHILOSOPHY

While Descartes criticized the scholastic system of learning based on books and erudition, he proposed a new way of achieving knowledge through the force of the reason alone. However, this did not develop into an utter refusal of books in themselves, but only of their erroneous and sterile use. The essay aims to sketch (1.) Descartes' attention and interest in books as objects of scientia within his correspondence, (2.) Descartes' definition of a proper use of books (and therefore of a 'legitimate' kind of books), (3.) Descartes' philosophical systematization of both reading and writing under the order of reason. Rhetoric, thus, develops as subject and instrument of reasoning, as well as books and (philosophical) literature.