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Cartesian, a. (n.)|kɑːˈtiːzɪən, -ʒ(ɪ)ən|
[ad. mod.L. Cartesiānus, f. Cartesius, latinized form of the name of René Descartes, the famous French philosopher and mathematician (1596–1650).]
A. adj.
a. Pertaining to Descartes, or to his philosophy or mathematical methods.
1656H. More Antid. Ath. Gen. Pref. 18 So perfectly agreeable to the Cartesian Philosophy. 1691–8Norris Pract. Disc. (1711) III. 128 When I happen to fall into that Cartesian doubt and perplexity. 1837Hallam Hist. Lit. iii. iii. §86 Cogito; Ergo sum, this famous enthymem of the Cartesian philosophy. 1854Scoffern in Orr's Circ. Sc. Chem. 73 Varying the form of lenses from sections of spheres to sections of certain ovals, which, from the name of Descartes, are termed the Cartesian ovals. 1882Minchin Unipl. Kinemat. 20 The Cartesian equation of the curve.
b. Cartesian co-ordinates: see co-ordinate n. 2; Cartesian devil, C. diver: a philosophical toy, consisting of a hollow figure, partly filled with water and partly with air, and made to float in a vessel nearly filled with water, having an air-tight elastic covering. This covering being pressed down, the air inside the vessel is compressed, and more water forced through a small aperture into the figure, which consequently sinks, to rise again when the external pressure is removed.
1731Phil. Trans. XXXVII. 79 The Glass for shewing the Experiment with the Cartesian Devils.
B. n. A follower of Descartes; one who accepts the philosophy of Descartes.
1660Boyle New Exp. Phys-Mech. Digress. 347 Divers of the new Philosophers, Cartesians, and others. 1692Bentley Boyle Lect. 59 The Cartesians and some others..have asserted that brutes are meer machins and automata. 1758Johnson Idler No. 10 ⁋4 The Cartesian who denies that his horse feels the spur. 1837Hallam Hist. Lit. iii. iii. §86 note, This word [Ego], introduced by the Germans, or originally perhaps by the old Cartesians.
Carˈtesianism, the philosophy of Descartes.
1656H. More Antid. Ath. Gen. Pref. 17 Not only Platonism, but that which now deserves to be called Cartesianism, for Des-Cartes his so happily recovering it again into view. 1870Athenæum 3 Dec. 716 Cartesianism, if logically followed into its conclusions, surely lands us in Spinozism. |