JOHANNES AMERPOEL AND GERAUD DE CORDEMOY: THE MEANING OF NEFESH IN TWO CARTESIAN RECONSTRUCTIONS OF GENESIS I

This paper sheds light on the reception of Cartesian cosmology in the second half of the seventeenth century in the works of two 'Mosaic philosophers': Copie d'une lettre ecrite a un scavant religieux de la Compagnie de Jesus (1668) of Geraud de Cordemoy and Cartesius Mosaizans (1669) of Johannes Amerpoel. Both authors focused on the compatibility of the Biblical story of Creation as told by Moses and Descartes' cosmology. My purpose is twofold. First, given the paucity of scholarship dealing with this subject, I focus on Johannes Amerpoel's intellectual biography and I offer a descriptive analysis of his treatise, with an emphasis on the discussion concerning the fifth and sixth days from the book of Genesis. Second, I consider Cordemoy's account of Creation as a complementary part that will provide a test-case for the reading endorsed in this paper. I argue that Amerpoel and Cordemoy's exegetical projects show a variation in the use of accommodation theory among Cartesians. A comparison of the understanding of the Hebrew term nefesh () in Cordemoy's letter and Amerpoel's Cartesius Mosaizans serves as a support for this claim.