Chan Eleanor
Nuncius. 2016;31(2):251-87. doi: 10.1163/18253911-03102001.
The assumption that the Cartesian bête-machine is the invention of René Descartes (1596-1650) is rarely contested. Close examination of Descartes' texts proves that this is a concept founded not on the basis of his own writings, but a subsequent critical interpretation, which developed and began to dominate his work after his death. Descartes' Treatise on Man, published posthumously in two rival editions, Florentius Schuyl's Latin translation De Homine (1662), and Claude Clerselier's Traité de l'homme, has proved particularly problematic. The surviving manuscript copies of the Treatise on Man left no illustrations, leaving both editors the daunting task of producing a set of images to accompany and clarify the fragmented text. In this intriguing case, the images can be seen to have spoken louder than the text which they illustrated. This paper assesses Schuyl's choice to represent Descartes' Man in a highly stylized manner, without superimposing Clerselier's intentions onto De Homine.
笛卡尔的“机械动物”是勒内·笛卡尔（1596 - 1650）的发明这一假设很少受到质疑。对笛卡尔著作的仔细研究表明，这是一个并非基于他自己的作品，而是基于后来批判性解读而形成的概念，这种解读在他死后发展起来并开始主导对他作品的理解。笛卡尔的《论人》在他死后以两个相互竞争的版本出版，弗洛伦蒂乌斯·舒伊的拉丁文译本《论人》（1662年）和克劳德·克莱尔塞利的《论人》，这已被证明特别成问题。《论人》现存的手稿副本没有插图，这使得两位编辑都面临一项艰巨的任务，即制作一组图像来配合并阐释这篇零散的文本。在这个有趣的案例中，可以看出图像比它们所阐释的文本更具说服力。本文评估了舒伊以高度程式化的方式呈现笛卡尔的“人”的选择，而没有将克莱尔塞利的意图强加于《论人》之上。
