Abstract

The aim of this paper is to analyze the relationship between philosophy and theology in Descartes' writings. Descartes' views evolve over time, under the pressure of factors deriving from both the historical context, and the development of his philosophical thinking. A careful reading of these factors allows to modify current interpretations, which tend to read Descartes' statements as neutral and pacific. Refusing to make philosophy a merely propaedeutic discipline which is ancillary to theology, Descartes not only claims full independence for natural philosophy and metaphysics from revelation; he also grants to philosophy a large field in which it prevails somehow over theology.