1598-1679

Dutch physician who introduced Cartesian views into Dutch universities. Appointed Utrecht's professor of medicine (1638), Regius attacked Aristotelian natural philosophy, publishing numerous disputations with clear Cartesian biases. Subsequently, Cartesianism was officially condemned (1642). Dutch Cartesians afterward adopted René Descartes's views on natural phenomena while distancing themselves from their metaphysical foundations, which smacked of atheism. Descartes originally defended Regius; but when Regius published Fundameta physices (1646), Descartes publicly distanced himself to avoid any suspicion of impiety.