Schuster’s Interpretation of Descartes in Descartes Agonistes

Most historians of science contrast Descartes’ verbally formulated (and in many respects mistaken) physics with Galileo’s and Newton’s mathematical physics. Garber called Descartes’ physics “metaphysical physics”. Not mathematical physics, but metaphysical physics (see Garber 1992). Schuster accepts this view, consistently labeling Descartes’ physics as “natural philosophy”. I shall show that Descartes’ physics was a mathematical physics, despite its verbal formulation. It fundamentally overcame the limitations of Galilean science and in many ways was the starting point for Newton’s innovations.