Andreea Mihali

My current research investigates Early Modern Philosophy topics through the lens of Argumentation Theory, Critical Thinking and Informal logic.

I am currently working on a book tentatively titled Desc(ART) where I use recent developments in Informal logic and Argumentation theory to shed new light on Descartes’ Meditations. After contextualizing Descartes’ views by placing them in the larger historical and cultural context of 17th century Europe, I use Leo Groarke’s Informal logic “ART” approach (Acknowledge-Represent-Test) to reconstruct Descartes’ arguments in multimodal form, employing period images and music alongside verbal claims.

Drawing on recent work in Argumentation Theory, my second research project looks at the role of audience in Descartes’ works. I argue that Descartes carefully considered his intended audience and tailored accordingly the content, the style, the tone, the reading instructions as well as the predictions about the likelihood of success of his readers. Descartes wrote in an invitational and conversational way using rhetorical and argumentative means to elicit reader engagement and facilitate uptake. A thorough analysis of Descartes published works uncovers a large-scale, well-crafted rhetorical strategy which emphasizes the replicability of Descartes' results as well as the applicability and adaptability of his insights.

“Descartes et son public”/“Descartes and His Audience”, Studia de Philosophia Moderna (2024) – forthcoming.

“A Cartesian Ethical Narrative”, Parrhesia 38, (2023) – forthcoming.

“Desc(ART) or the 21st Century Meditator”, Comparative Philosophy 14.2 (2023).

“Descartes’s Ethics: Generosity in the Flesh”, Epoché: A Journal for the History of Philosophy 27:1: 51-95. (2022).

“The Role of Freedom in Descartes' Ethics of Belief”, Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 95:2: 218-45 (2014).

“Sum Res Volans: The Centrality of Willing for Descartes”, International Philosophical Quarterly 51:2:202 (2011).