Cartesian mechanism evicted all spirits and occult qualities from nature

Evidence

All spirits were effectively removed from nature. External objects consisted only of quantities: extension, figure, magnitude, and motion. Occult qualities and properties existed only in the mind, not in the objects themselves. Such qualities could not initiate motion because they could not possess force sufficient for putting objects into motion. Nor could the soul, whether the world soul of the occultists or the human soul, initiate motion, it was merely the seat of the will and of perception. — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature, 798

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Mechanism’s dead nature results from stripping intentional description, not from lack of spirit — Val Plumwood, Feminism and the Mastery of Nature, 505; Natural magic’s manipulation assumptions carried directly into mechanism — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature: Women, Ecology,…, 472; Descartes’ certainty program reduced nature to quantifiable primary qualities — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature: Women, Ecology,…, 795 (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• Platonic self-harmony is achieved through internal colonization of nature by reason #expands (0.80) — Val Plumwood, Feminism and the Mastery of Nature, 348
• Speculative philosophy emerges when thought renounces rigid partition and opens to nature #complicates (0.80) — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel, 989
• Modern disenchantment concentrated rather than abolished demons #contradicts (0.75) — Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imagination, 350