Descartes The Life and times of a Genius

by Grayling, A. C.

• ISBN13: 9780802715012
• ISBN10: 080271501X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2006-10-31
• Publisher: Walker Books

Summary

Scientist, mathematician, traveler, soldier--and spy--Rene Descartes was one of the founders of the modern world. His life coincided with an extraordinary time in history: the first half of the miraculous seventeenth century, replete with genius in the arts and sciences, and wracked by civil and international conflicts across Europe. But at his birth in 1596 the world was still dominated by medieval beliefs in phenomena such as miracles and spontaneous generation. It was Descartes who identified the intellectual tools his peers needed to free themselves from the grip of religious authority and in doing so he founded modern philosophy. In this new biography, A. C. Grayling tells the story of Descartes' life, and places it in his tumultuous times--with the unexpected result that an entirely new aspect of the story comes to light. A.C. Graylingis professor of philosophy at Birkbeck College, University of London. Among his recent books are a biography of William Hazlitt,The Meaning of Things, andThe Reason of Things. He writes a regular column forThe Timesof London.In this new biography, A. C. Grayling tells the story of Descartes' life, and places it in his tumultuous times--with the unexpected result that an entirely new aspect of the story comes to light. Scientist, mathematician, traveler, soldier--and spy--Rene Descartes was one of the founders of the modern world. His life coincided with an extraordinary time in history: the first half of the miraculous seventeenth century, replete with genius in the arts and sciences, and wracked by civil and international conflicts across Europe. But at his birth in 1596 the world was still dominated by medieval beliefs in phenomena such as miracles and spontaneous generation. It was Descartes who identified the intellectual tools his peers needed to free themselves from the grip of religious authority and in doing so he founded modern philosophy."InDescartes, A.C. Grayling . . . deftly conjures up the political and religious conflicts of Bohemia and France, Spain and Holland, and brings to life those distant characters and events that began to shape modern Europe . . . He makes a convincing case that Descartes had a minor role as some kind of intelligence agent in the affairs of the day."--Simon Blackburn,New YorkTimes Book Review "As Newton was to physics, so Descartes was to philosophy, moving it from superstition and religion to science and reason. They are the founding fathers of the modern world. Grayling's life of Descartes is set firmly in the age of the Counter-Reformation and the Thirty Years War, which are evoked in a lively, almost novelistic style of which Descartes would certainly have approved. This propels the narrative forward and illuminates the philosophy for a lay readership."--The Times(London) "Grayling's account of the man and the thinker, which aims ‘to engage in conversation with non-specialists,' navigates a careful path between the colourfully anecdotal and the challengingly scholarly, and succeeds admirably in producing an elegant, subtle and historically informed portrait of one of the found fathers of modernity . . . excellent intellectual biography."--Sunday Times(London) "‘Cogito ergo sum (I think, therefore I am),' said Rene Descartes in the mid 17th Century--the most famous philosophical sentence ever uttered . . . As Grayling vividly conveys, in a era of deference to religious authority, this was revolutionary.&am

Author Biography

A.C. Grayling is professor of philosophy at Birkbeck College, University of London. Among his recent books are a biography of William Hazlitt, The Meaning of Things, and The Reason of Things. He writes a regular column for The Times of London.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	ix
Preface	xiii
Who Was Descartes?	1	(10)
The Awakening	11	(30)
A Night of Dreams	41	(28)
The Mystery of the Rosy Cross	69	(20)
Nine Years of Travel	89	(30)
Animals on the Moon	119	(30)
Francine	149	(8)
The Shape of Snow	157	(20)
Descartes Contra Voetius	177	(18)
The Princess of the Passions	195	(26)
The Queen of Winter	221	(16)
Appendix I: A Note on Descartes' Philosophy	237	(14)
Appendix II: Biographie of Philosophers and Descartes' Biography	251	(12)
Notes	263	(22)
Select Bibliography	285	(6)
Index	291