A Lecture by Christia Mercer
"If Descartes is not the father of modern philosophy, then what is he?"
For generations, students have been told that Descartes invented the modern subjective individual and that his pivot to subjectivity was made possible by his innovative use of an evil deceiver whose powers can make false beliefs seem true. Descartes' doubter despairs until he grasps an indubitable truth: he is “a thinking thing.” The modern subjective individual seems miraculously born with a deceiving demon as its midwife. Professor Mercer argues in her lecture that this thrilling story is false, an invention of so-called enlightenment figures, who turned Descartes into a harbinger of their insights. She discusses the late medieval women who were the source of Descartes’ demon strategy, before asking “well, then, what is the significance of Descartes?”
Christia Mercer is the Gustave M. Berne Professor of Philosophy, Director of Just Ideas, editor of Oxford Philosophical Concepts, co-editor of Oxford New Histories of Philosophy, and former chair of Lit Hum.
