The "received view" of Descartes has shaped the image of a dualist thinker who radically separated mind and body and thus laid the foundations for a "divided modernity". Numerous epithets have been applied to Cartesian thinking, all of which now sound depreciative: mechanicism, determinism, and reductionism, among others. This article contends that Descartes was not the type of dualist that is normally assumed. Based on a rereading of two essential works (Discourse on Method and Metaphysical Meditations) and a dialogue with the new literature on the theme, we contend that overcoming the "received view" of Descartes can shed new light on discussions in (and of) the collective health field and highlight the so-called expanded health paradigm (including aspects beyond the biological or physiological, such as the psychological, social, economic, cultural, and political).