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This volume presents essays on Descartes by pre-eminent Italian historian of philosophy Emanuela Scribano. Originally written and published in French and Italian, these essays are translated into English for the first time. The essays focus on some pivotal theses in Cartesian philosophy: proofs of God's existence, free creation of eternal truths, error, animals as machines, occasionalism, examining them in light of the philosophical context and of classical writers such as Galen, scholastic authors such as Thomas Aquinas, Duns Scotus, Suárez, authors contemporary to Descartes, such as Campanella and Silhon, and philosophers who referred to Cartesian philosophy, such as La Forge and Malebranche.

Presents an analysis of Fenelon's critique (Refutation du systeme du P. Malebranche [Refutation of the System of P. Malebranche]) of Malebranche's Traite de la nature et de la grace (Treatise on Nature and Grace). In the first seven chapters, Fenelon shows that Malebranche destroys divine freedom, making this world the only world possible. Similar arguments showing the contingency of the world & divine liberty are traced to their post-Cartesian origins in exchanges between G. W. Leibnitz & Arnaud, as well as to the work of St. Thomas Aquinas & H. Gouhier. It is noted that Fenelon's critique stopped short of advocating an opposing form of determinism, such as in the case of Arnaud. J. Sadler