Descartes: A BiographyRené Descartes is best remembered today for writing 'I think, therefore I am', but his main contribution to the history of ideas was his effort to construct a philosophy that would be sympathetic to the new sciences that emerged in the seventeenth century. To a great extent he was the midwife to the Scientific Revolution and a significant contributor to its key concepts. In four major publications, he fashioned a philosophical system that accommodated the needs of these new sciences and thereby earned the unrelenting hostility of both Catholic and Calvinist theologians, who relied on the scholastic philosophy that Descartes hoped to replace. His contemporaries claimed that his proofs of God's existence in the Meditations were so unsuccessful that he must have been a cryptic atheist and that his discussion of skepticism served merely to fan the flames of libertinism. This is the first biography in English that addresses the full range of Descartes' interest in theology, philosophy and the sciences and that traces his intellectual development through his entire career. |
Contents
8 The French Liars Monkey
and the Utrecht Controversy | 218 |
9 Descartes and Princess Elizabeth | 248 |
10 The Principles of Philosophy 1644 | 276 |
11 The Quarrel and Final Rift with Regius | 307 |
The Leiden Theologians 1647 | 337 |
13 Thoughts of Retirement | 366 |
14 Death in Sweden | 394 |
Descartes Principal Works | 419 |
| 37 | |
Paris 16221628 | 67 |
4 A Fabulous World 16291633 | 97 |
5 The Scientific Essaysand the Discourse on Method 16331637 | 126 |
6 Retreat and Defence 16371639 | 156 |
7 Metaphysics in a Hornets Nest 16391642 | 184 |
Places Where Descartes Lived | 421 |
Notes | 425 |
Bibliography | 489 |
Index | 503 |
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acknowledged Amsterdam animals appeared April argument Aristotle asked atheism Baillet Beeckman body Bourdin Calvinist Cartesian Catholic Chanut Châtellerault church claimed Clerselier controversy copy correspondence Council of Trent critics death December Descartes seems Descartes to Elizabeth Descartes to Huygens Descartes to Mersenne Descartes wrote despite Dioptrics Discourse on Method discussion dispute Dutch edition Egmond Egmond-Binnen Essays evidence experience explain February Fermat Fl`eche France French friends Galileo Gassendi Geometry Holland hope human Ibid ideas included intellectual January Jesuits later Latin Leiden letter lived March mathematics Meditations metaphysics mind motion move natural November objections October one’s Paris Pascal passions philosophy physics Picot Pollot Princess Elizabeth Principles problems published question readers reason Regius religious René Descartes Reneri reply Roberval scholastic Schoock September Sorbonne soul suggested Sweden theologians theology theory things thought treatise truth United Provinces Utrecht Voetius wish World writing
Popular passages
Page ix - A late Discourse made in a Solemne Assembly of Nobles and Learned Men at Montpellier in France, touching the Cure of Wounds by the Powder of Sympathy ; With instructions how to make the said Powder ; whereby many other Secrets of Nature are unfolded.
Page 211 - I am" was so certain and so assured that all the most extravagant suppositions brought forward by the sceptics were incapable of shaking it, I came to the conclusion that I could receive it without scruple as the first principle of the Philosophy for which I was seeking.
Page 444 - ... vehemently suspected by this Holy Office of heresy, that is of having believed and held the doctrine (which is false and contrary to the Holy and Divine Scriptures), that the sun is the centre of the world...
Page 22 - ... of themselves aid in reaching this end, the instructor, seeking in all things sincerely the honor and glory of God, shall so treat them as to prepare his hearers and especially ours for theology and stir them up greatly to the knowledge of their Creator. 2. How Far Aristotle Is to Be Followed. — In matters of any importance let him not depart from Aristotle unless something occurs which is foreign to the doctrine which academies everywhere approve of; much more if it is opposed to the orthodox...
Page 95 - For they cannot enter without stepping on certain tiles which are so arranged that if, for example, they approach a Diana who is bathing they will cause her to hide in the reeds, and if they move forward to pursue her they will cause a Neptune to advance and threaten them with his trident; or if they go in another direction they will cause a sea-monster to emerge and spew water onto their faces; or other such things according to the whim of the engineers who made the fountains.
Page 335 - I also indicated what changes must occur in the brain in order to cause waking, sleep and dreams; how light, sounds, smells, tastes, heat and the other qualities of external objects can imprint various ideas on the brain through the mediation of the senses; and how hunger, thirst, and the other internal passions can also send their ideas there. And I explained which part of the brain must be taken to be the 'common...
Page 439 - And the Decree goes on to define that " whoever thenceforth shall presume to assert, defend, or hold that the rational or intellectual soul is not of itself and essentially the form of the human body is to be regarded as a heretic
Page 43 - I entirely abandoned the study of letters, and resolved no longer to seek any other science than the knowledge of myself, or of the great book of the world.