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 |
2 In Search of a Career 16161622 | 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 |
| 489 | |
| 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.