The Invited Philosophers Gilles & Fred This was the 19th dinner, at my house, and because Gilles missed the Tertulia and everybody loved the grilled Shawarma chicken, I repeated the menu for this event. Menu Appetizers: Rice crackers and pita chips with spinach and artichoke cream. Main course: Grilled chicken shawarma, Moroccan couscous, tzatziki sauce, and mixed green salad. Desserts: Pastries from a Portuguese bakery (Courtesy of G&F). Drinks: Champagne Ernest Rapeneau (Courtesy of G&F) and Maison Barboulot Cabernet-Syrah. The Philosophy René Descartes (1596–1650) defined his philosophy of the “Passions

of the Soul” with the help of his pen pal and fellow philosopher Princess Elisabeth of Bohemia. It is important to note that by "soul" Descartes meant the "mind". According to Descartes, sensations, appetites, and passions have a practical functionality: to act as guides for maneuvering our bodies through the world, and ultimately for preserving the mind-body union that constitutes the human being. Elisabeth and Descartes discuss how such metaphysically disparate things as mind and body can act on each other, and by 1645, their discussion shifts to whether the…