Abstract

“Strictly speaking, Descartes was not a philosopher; he was a sophist and a mytho-theologian. Furthermore, none of his historical descendants are philosophers. They are sophists and mytho-theologians”. Cartesian Nightmare is the first of three volumes constituting a radical reinterpretation of the history of philosophy wherein Descartes’s unimpeachable status as “the father of modern philosophy” is forcefully challenged. Building upon the work of Jacques Maritain in which Descartes is declared an “ideosophist,” Redpath argues that Descartes is not the father of modern philosophy, or any philosophy, because he is, in fact, not a philosopher at all.