This book reconstructs key aspects of the early career of Descartes from 1618 to 1633; that is, up through the point of his composing his first system of natural philosophy, Le Monde, in 1629-33. It focuses upon the overlapping and intertwined development of Descartes´ projects in physico-mathematics, analytical mathematics, universal method, and, finally, systematic corpuscular-mechanical natural philosophy. The concern is not simply with the conceptual and technical aspects of these projects; but, with Descartes´ agendas within them and his construction and presentation of his intellectual identity in relation to them.
Descartes´ technical projects, agendas and senses of identity shifted over time, entangled and displayed great successes and deep failures, as he morphed from a mathematically competent, Jesuit trained graduate in neo-Scholastic Aristotelianism to aspiring prophet of a systematised corpuscular-mechanism, passing through stages of being a committed physico-mathematicus, advocate of a putative universal mathematics´, and projector of a grand methodological dream. In all three dimensions-projects, agendas and identity concerns-the young Descartes struggled and contended, with himself and with real or virtual peers and competitors, hence the title Descartes-Agonistes´.
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