If there is a consensus in philosophy, it is that Cartesianism is false and harmful: analytic and continental thinkers agree about this, as do feminists, Marxists and cognitive scientists. It is agreed that the Cartesian subject must be overcome, together with the Christian baggage of dualism, transcendence and foundationalism. The aim of this course is to elaborate a close re-reading of Descartes as a revolutionary voluntarist. We will consider the possibility that not thought, but freedom, is for Descartes human essence; that he views rationalism as grounded in passion; and that virtue ethics, as well as a political revolution, is the aim of his thought—not epistemology or certain science. In elaborating this alternative reading, we will address not only the prevalent (post)modern objections to Descartes but also the questions inherent to his thought: Radical Doubt, the Cogito, the Mind-Body Problem, the Cartesian Circle, the Ontological Argument, etc.