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This book reconstructs aspects of the early career of Descartes, tracing the overlapping, intertwined development of his work in physico-mathematics, analytical mathematics, universal method and finally, systematic corpuscular-mechanical natural philosophy.

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This book reconstructs key aspects of the early career of Descartes from 1618 to 1633; that is, up through the point of his composing his first system of natural philosophy, Le Monde, in 1629-33. It focuses upon the overlapping and intertwined development of Descartes´ projects in physico-mathematics, analytical mathematics, universal method, and, finally, systematic corpuscular-mechanical natural philosophy. The concern is not simply with the conceptual and technical aspects of these projects; but, with Descartes´ agendas within them and his construction and presentation of his intellectual identity in relation to them.

Descartes´ technical projects, agendas and senses of identity shifted over time, entangled and displayed great successes and deep failures, as he morphed from a mathematically competent, Jesuit trained graduate in neo-Scholastic Aristotelianism to aspiring prophet of a systematised corpuscular-mechanism, passing through stages of being a committed physico-mathematicus , advocate of a putative ´universal mathematics´, and projector of a grand methodological dream. In all three dimensions-projects, agendas and identity concerns-the young Descartes struggled and contended, with himself and with real or virtual peers and competitors, hence the title ´ Descartes-Agonistes ´.

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Introduction: Problems of Descartes and the Scientific Revolution .- Conceptual and Historiographical Foundations.- Recalled to Study: Descartes Physico-Mathematicus Descartes Opticien: The Optical Triumph of the 1620s .- nalytical Mathematics, Universal Mathematics and Method: Descartes´ Identity and Agenda Entering the 1620s.- Method and the Problem of the Historical Descartes.- Universal Mathematics Interruptus: The Program of the later Regulae and its Collapse 1626-28.- Reinventing the Agenda and Identity: Descartes, Physico-mathematical Philosopher of Nature 1629-33.- Reading Le Monde as Pedagogy and Fable .- Waterworld: Descartes´ Vortical Celestial Mechanics and Cosmological Optics in Le Monde. - Le Monde as a System of Natural Philosophy.- Cosmography, Realist Copernicanism and Systematising Strategy in the Principia Philosophiae.- Conclusion: The Young and the Mature Descartes Agonistes.- Appendix 1 Descartes, Mydorge and Beeckman: The Evolution of Cartesian Lens Theory 1627-1637.- Appendix 2 Decoding Descartes´ Vortex Celestial Mechanics in the Text of Le Monde.

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