Book Description
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.
Customer Reviews:
Intriguing thought that explains a lot.......2007-05-26
This book brings up a very intersting set of connections that seem to explain a lot. True to program this book's focus is on biography instead of philosophy. But the biographical insights are well worth the read on their own. There is a good summary of Descartes' philosophical position in the first appendix. One surprise is how little mention there is of Spinoza especially in those sections that presents Descartes' impact on those who followed him. All in all, this is an excellent book to recommend to those students that want to spend some time on Descartes in an introductory course.
Good Biographical Reading.......2007-05-16
I found Grayling's "Descartes" to be an interesting read from a pure biographical perspective. Although I have an interest in philosophy, Grayling writes in a way that reasonably intelligent laypersons can understand. Unfortunately, though, Grayling treads very little new ground, relying on past biographers of Descartes to do the legwork for him. The only new ground the author treads is relaying the proposition that Descartes was a spy. I actually find this plausible for two reasons: one, it explains Descartes' travelling; two, Descartes doesn't talk about his travelling much in his writings. These two factors give Grayling's hypothesis some weight. Grayling doesn't take too much time expositing Descartes' philosophy, but in an appendex he does give a brief introduction to it. Like I mentioned, the author does rely on other biographers for information, but that fact doesn't take away from the quality of the book. One fact that Grayling kept mentioning was that Descartes seemed to want to portray his ideals as acceptable to the church, and also to have his beliefs fit into the framework of "orthodox" theology of the time. I wondered why Grayling kept hitting on this point so many times, and then I came to the following conclusion: Grayling wants to excuse Descartes. One would imagine that if Descartes applied his method to the idea of the existence of God, one would conclude that it would be necessary to doubt, or even reject, the existence of God. Descartes never stated that God didn't exist, nor did he (as far as I know) even doubt it. By not stating that he doubted it, Descartes attempted to stay on good terms with the church. Descartes' later politiking shows me that he was concerned with ensuring his own safety, both physically and financially, which is fine. Grayling doesn't go this far in the book, but I think it is a necessary and unavoidable conclusion; I'm just surprised Graying didn't call Descartes out on it. To conclude this review, Grayling's bibliography is strong, giving the reader lots of roads to travel if one wants to explore the subject further, which I plan to do.
The Life, Times and Ideas of a Key Thinker.......2007-04-08
This is a very readable, enjoyable and informative book. Professor Grayling takes a lot of time putting Descartes into his proper historical context, which I think is essential to understanding him, or any philosopher. Even abstract ideas don't develop without any reference to what is going on at the time. The problem of reconciling faith with the nascent scientific revolution, the relation between the new anatomy and the locus of the mind, and religious wars of the 17th century were pivotal to the evolution of Descartes' thought. Grayling naturally emphasizes Descartes' philosophical ideas rather than his mathematical or scientific ones, though these also are discussed. Grayling also gives us as good a look as we can get at the motives and preferences of so private a person: the expensive green silk suit that he bought in hopes of securing a title show us a man who is vain rather than austere, despite his reclusive life in the Netherlands, for example. HIs arrogance was as expected, but not his pettiness towards, for example, Beeckman. And that he composed librettos for Queen Christina was a real surprise.
Descarter: The Life and times of a Genius........2007-03-08
I found it to be an excellent book.
A well-rounded view of his many achievements........2007-02-08
As A.C. Grayling reveals here - we live in a world largely made by Descartes' ideas and philosophy, which have changed how we view nature and scientific inquiry itself. Given his importance it's amazing to note relatively few biographies cover his life, so college-level and public lending libraries will want to add DESCARTES to any serious collection strong in science or philosophy. A highly recommended addition to biography collections, DESCARTES consists of deftly written chapters consider his life, influences, contributions and approach and offers up a well-rounded view of his many achievements.
Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch
Book Description
Although René Descartes' (1596-1650) is best remembered today for writing "I think, therefore, I am," his unique 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. In four major publications, he fashioned a philosophical system that accommodated the needs of these new sciences, thereby earning 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. Although Descartes died in Stockholm in obscurity, he soon became one of the most famous philosophers of the seventeenth century, a status that he continues to enjoy today. This English-language biography addresses the complete range of Descartes' interests in theology, philosophy, and the sciences, and traces his intellectual development throughout his entire career. Desmond M. Clarke is Professor of Philosophy at University College Cork, Ireland, where he previously served as Dean of Arts and Vice-President. He is author of a number of books on Descartes and the seventeenth century, including Descartes' Philosophy of Science (1982), Occult Powers & Hypotheses (1989) and Descartes' Theory of Mind (1993). He has translated two selections of Descartes' writings and has also translated La Forge's Treatise on the Human Mind (1997) and Poulain de la Barre's The Equality of the Sexes.
Customer Reviews:
An exhaustively in-depth accounting of the life of mathematician, theologian, and philosopher Rene Descartes.......2006-04-05
Philosophy professor Desmond Clarke presents Descartes: A Biography, an exhaustively in-depth accounting of the life of mathematician, theologian, and philosopher Rene Descartes. Obscure during his life, yet famous after his death, Descartes was a crucial contributor to the Scientific Revolution, and even tried to prove the existence of God, though his contemporaries considered those attempts questionable at best. He is immortalized today in the name of the Cartesian coordinate system, and the transformation of thought he helped usher has left repercussions up to the modern day. Descartes: A Biography examines both Descartes' personal life and his great discoveries and achievements, and is highly recommended for library and biography shelves.
Certain to Become the Standard Descartes Biography.......2006-03-18
Let's make this short but sweet: Over the last few years there has been a spate of Descartes biographies, none of them satisfying. But now Cambridge U. Press has come out with what I feel will be the standard biography of Descartes, and it had better be, inasmuch as it's over 500 pages. Clarke's biography differs from the others in that he takes the full range of Descartes' interests into account (theology, philosophy and the science) as he traces Descartes' intellectual development and his ultimate role as midwife to the Scientific Revolution, a role he `inherited' from Kepler and Galileo and one which he expanded into a search for a theory that would link theology, science and philosophy. A recluse who spent much of his life in Holland and kept in touch with the intellectual currents of his day mainly by correspondence, Descartes was a fascinating character ands Clarke does an excellent job straddling the line between Descartes the man and Descartes the thinker.
In addition, the book is quite well-written; a worthy addition to the Cambridge U. Press series of Philosophical Biographies. (Previous subjects include Spinoza, Hobbes, Hegel, Kant and Kierkegaard.) While demonstrating his mastery of his subject, Clarke does an excellent job of explaining Descartes' philosophy and intellectual interests without boring his readers, a trick more scholarly authors should learn.
Book Description
René Descartes (1596–1650) is one of the towering and central figures in Western philosophy and mathematics. His apothegm “Cogito, ergo sum” marked the birth of the mind-body problem, while his creation of so-called Cartesian coordinates have made our physical and intellectual conquest of physical space possible.
But Descartes had a mysterious and mystical side, as well. Almost certainly a member of the occult brotherhood of the Rosicrucians, he kept a secret notebook, now lost, most of which was written in code. After Descartes’s death, Gottfried Leibniz, inventor of calculus and one of the greatest mathematicians in history, moved to Paris in search of this notebook—and eventually found it in the possession of Claude Clerselier, a friend of Descartes. Leibniz called on Clerselier and was allowed to copy only a couple of pages—which, though written in code, he amazingly deciphered there on the spot. Leibniz’s hastily scribbled notes are all we have today of Descartes’s notebook, which has disappeared.
Why did Descartes keep a secret notebook, and what were its contents? The answers to these questions lead Amir Aczel and the reader on an exciting, swashbuckling journey, and offer a fascinating look at one of the great figures of Western culture.
Customer Reviews:
Aczel's worst.......2007-04-18
I've enjoyed several other Aczel works: Fermat's Last Theorem, God's Equation, Mystery of the Aleph, and I struggled mightily to get through this one, but it's just too dull. Blah, blah, blah, then this clown wrote to that one and said meaningless things; blah, blah, blah, these phrases from this ancient manuscript appeared in this person's letters, proving he was influenced by it. Blech.
Academic Dishonesty.......2006-10-27
It's no surprise that this book wasn't published by an academic press, because no peer review process could possibly have permitted Aczel so completely to misrepresent the contents of Descartes' `secret notebook.' When he purports to be describing the theorem Descartes discovered, Aczel is actually describing work that was done by Euler more than a century later.
One of the `Featured Reviewers' at this site says Aczel "has a talent for explaining mathematical ideas and formulas that might seem daunting to the lay reader." But how can the `lay reader,' including this reviewer, assess how good well he's explaining the material unless he is already familiar with it? Otherwise, an `expert' like Aczel can fabricate his story, the `lay reader' will never be the wiser.
In about 1750 Euler proved that if you count up the number V of vertices of a convex polyhedron, the number E of edges and the number F of faces, then V - E + F is always equal to 2. This is the theorem Aczel attributes to Descartes in the last 2 chapters of his book, a book which is otherwise just a rehash of old biographies of Descartes.
What Descartes actually proved is this: take the same convex polyhedron, calculate the angle deficiency at each vertex and sum these up - the answer is always 8 right angles (720 degrees). What's an angle deficiency? It's the sum of all the plane angles that meet at a given vertex, subtracted from 360. Let's take the octahedron as an example: at each of its vertices, four equilateral triangles meet. So the angle deficiency is [360 - (60 + 60 + 60 + 60)], which is 120 degrees. Since an octahedron has 6 identical vertices, the sum of the angle deficiencies is 6x120 = 720 degrees, or 8 right angles. The octahedron is only one particular case; this works equally well for any convex solid figure. Try it yourself for a cube, where 8x90 = 720.
Well, these two theorems are certainly very different results, but in the late 1800s, after Descartes notebook was re-discovered, people realized that you could deduce Euler's theorem from Descartes theorem. As a result, in the early 20th century some French chauvinists renamed Euler's formula for Descartes.
There is no evidence that Euler ever saw Descartes notebook, although Aczel fabricates a `fact' to make it seem like he did. There is no evidence that Euler ever visited Hanover.
Now the real facts would make a really good story for a popular math book. A real master of the genre, like William Dunham, Simon Singh or Eli Maor, would explain both Descartes' theorem and Euler's theorem to their audience and then demonstrate the logical equivalence of the two.
Aczel is apparently incapable of doing this, or at least was unwilling to do the real work that it would involve. Instead, he describes Euler's theorem where he claims to be describing Descartes' notebook. Specifically, he claims that Descartes counted the edges of a polyhedron, which he most certainly did not. Euler was the first person ever to consider the edge of a polyhedron as an item of mathematical interest, so that he actually had to coin a Latin word (acies) for it.
As is well documented in other reviews: (1) most of this book is a re-hash of various biographies of Descartes and 90% of it has nothing to do with `secret notebook,' and (2) it is absolutely loaded with factual errors about mathematics and the history of mathematics.
What's much worse is the tiny portion that does cover the notebook itself is an amazingly inaccurate and even dishonest misrepresentation of what Descartes really did. Shame, shame, shame.
It depends on what you are looking for...and it's probably not here.......2006-06-22
When one reads a book titled "Descartes's Secret Notebook," one expects a few things: a) information about Descartes, b) information about the secret notebook. But Aczel does a slipshod job of presenting both to us.
First, information about Descartes. What biographical information we can find within this book we can find on the internet in greater abundance and depth. I see no reason to buy this book if a) there are many points of inaccuracy with regard to facts in this book, b) what can be found here can already be found on the net.
Second, the secret notebook. We expect to see the links between Rosicrucian teachings and Descartes's notebook, but what we find is the links between Descartes' life and Rosicrucian teachings, and that between Leibniz's beliefs and Descartes' notebook. So Aczel does not offer us what he promises when he claims a connection between the notebook and Rosicrucian teachings.
Besides, why should I buy this book when it is a poor summary of a 1987 article by Pierre Costabel? Aczel should be ashamed.
And if the Wikiproduct report at the bottom of this page is true (and evidence suggests that this is so), then Aczel should be as ashamed of his lack of integrity as he should be at his lack of scholarship.
Philosopher Cavalier.......2006-06-05
"Descartes' Secret Notebook" reminds us -- if we need a reminder -- as to how and why politics and religion play such a deterministic role in the history of knowledge. Although I agree with those who say that the book does not deliver on its promise to unveil the deepest and darkest secrets of Descartes' notebook, the fact that a complete copy of his notebook is no longer available to us, or so it would seem, fascinates me.
Perhaps the Inquisition is to blame, or the hostile theological climate of Protestant Holland, or just the geopolitical tumult of the seventeenth century. But chance, fate, or whatever, seemed to conspire against Descartes' true legacy the moment he died. The French Ambassador to Sweden, Pierre Chanut, practically tossed his corpse onto the rubbish heap. And though Queen Cristina of Sweden certainly meant well, she seems to have lost custody of the situation once her famous tutor died.
The fate of Descartes' skull is a case in point. His bodily remains were buried in an obscure graveyard in Stockholm, with no head, only to be shipped hither and yonder in later times. Today his skull is "part of a tasteless museum display about the development of the human skull" at the Museum of Man in Paris.
Sad though this may be, if ever there was a "philosopher cavalier" it was Rene' Descartes. Always fashionably dressed and wearing his sword, he seems to have been very charismatic -- a natural celebrity -- which he became in actual fact after the publication of his "Discourse on the Method." And in spite of all the misfortunes of his bodily remains and the disappearance of his secret notebook he is still the "founder of modern philosophy" as well as the inventor of coordinate geometry. Which is not a bad legacy for a man who tried to hide the true nature of his intellectual activities.
As the book makes clear, the life of Descartes is a lesson to all those who value freedom and knowledge and would be loath to see it disappear. His curiosity may have led him to explore alchemy, Rosicrucianism, Copernican theory, and no telling what else. We simply don't know. All we know is that the quest for knowledge, in the broadest sense, often threatens the very foundations of the existing world order. And this may never change. Once certain doctrines are set in stone by the powers that be: "He that troubleth his own ground shall inherit the wind." Proverbs 11:29 KJV.
It Depends on what you are looking for....Great Basic History of Descarte.......2006-05-18
I'm a Mechanical Engineer with enough Mathematics and Philosophy study in my past to have a basic understanding of Descartes. I went into the book with no knowledge of Aczel, the secret notebook, or of the details of Descartes life. With that said I found the book to be great. I walked away understanding much more of Descartes' life and studies. I feel the secret notebook was addressed fairly well through out hinting that it existed through Descartes' fear of publishing. We know the secret notebook is lost to time and very little of it is known, so I'm not sure that we can expect the detail that some reviewers are demanding. All in all I liked it. Fine, if you are a mathematics or Descartes scholar you will not learn much here. But for 99.9% of the population, you will learn of a great Mathematician and Philosopher. Thanks Aczel.
Book Description
Descartes is one of the greatest of all thinkers. Modern philosophy is generally taken to begin with him. His unique contribution to Western thought covers not only philosophy but also science and mathematics; his studies in mechanics and optics have provided modern science with tools still used and work still built on today. This is the first intellectual biography of Descartes in English. Stephen Gaukroger traces his intellectual development from childhood, establishes the connections between his intellectual and personal life, and placing these in the context of the cultural environment of the time, offers a fundamental reassessment of all aspects of his life and work. It is usually assumed that there is a little development in Descartes' thought, but this biography shows evidence of very significant changes of view and a general shift in his concern away from natural philosophy following the condemnation of Galileo by the Church in 1633. Starting with a full account of Descartes' early scientific work, Dr Gaukroger shows how it informed and influenced his later philosophical studies. On this new view, Descartes' philosophical work was meant not a self-contained exercise in epistemology and scepticism, but rather as a defence of his physical doctrines against a hostile Church. This book allows for the first time a full understanding of Descartes' ideas in the context of his life and times. It will be welcomed by all readers interested in the origins of modern thought.
Customer Reviews:
Historical raisons dýêtre of Descartesý intellectual pursuit.......2001-08-18
Gaukroger ends his introduction with the words: "An intellectual biography forces one to think in very specific terms, hopefully yielding a kind of understanding which historians of philosophy of science have missed". This point of view marks one of the strengths as well as one of the weaknesses of this work on Descartes.
This intellectual biography offers a detailed exposition on the intellectual development and evolution of thought of René Descartes. The book strictly follows the chronology of events in Descartes' intellectual life and starts with his early childhood and education at La Flèche. This chapter excels in providing insight in 17th-century Jesuit education systems and the influence they had on Descartes' methodology and fields of study. Chapter 3 focuses on Descartes' apprenticeship with Isaac Beeckman in Holland and the decisive influence the latter's corpuscalarian thinking had on the natural philosophy of Descartes. Starting from this corpuscalar theory, Descartes developed an arithmetical account of consonance in music and alternative explanations for the kinematics of falling bodies and the problems of hydrostatics. During this period, Descartes discovered the proportional compass (mesolabe), which led him to the ambitious idea of a general theory of mathematics. In chapter 4 Gaukroger puts forward the interesting thesis that Descartes' search for a general theory of "method" was partly influenced by the contact he had with the Rosicrucians in Germany and he was to share in something like the generality and the delusions of grandeur of their vision of a universal language, generating all truths from basic premises. Later, on returning to France, Descartes had to defend himself against charges of being a Rosicrucian, which was considered to be a political threat. During these libertine Paris years, covered in chapter 5, Descartes pursued his interests in natural philosophy and mathematics in close contact with Mersenne, Mydorge and others. During these three years Descartes discovered the law of refraction in optics, lays the foundation of analytic geometry by the arithmetization of geometrical problems and develops a theory of perceptual cognition. In 1629 Descartes moved to Holland and stayed there for almost 20 years. During these years, discussed in chapters 6 to 8, Descartes worked on several publications: Le Monde, his most important work on natural philosophy, L'Homme, an exposition of a mechanist physiology, Geometry, a first account of analytic geometry, and Discourse of Method, a metaphysical foundation of his thinking, which established him as the best known philosopher of the 17th century. Gaukroger meticulously traces origins and dates of the respective chapters in these books and points them to specific periods of Descartes' intellectual life. Descartes' attempts to systematisation, his later publications and the critics these evoked, are discussed in the final chapters.
Gaukroger establishes a rationale for Descartes' intellectual pursuits both in terms of his motivations and in terms of the specific cultural context in which these motivations bear fruit and thus fulfils his goals for writing this intellectual biography. The book will appeal to students of philosophy and history of science that are already familiar with Descartes. A close reading of this book will guard them from the homogenization from thought in previous writing on Descartes and offer them a better understanding of the genesis of and significant changes in his doctrines. However, this biography fails in both precisely identifying many of the mathematical problems studied by Descartes, and in placing them within their correct historical context. A particular example is Descartes' solution for the problem of a depressed quartic equation, cited in every textbook on the history of mathematics. Gaukroger fails to provide an appreciation of the problem, to discuss previous solutions given by Viète and 16th-century Italian mathematicians and to explain Descartes' solution. Offering a better understanding of Descartes' study fields may indeed not have been Gaukroger's ambition but I am convinced that many readers will be missing this aspect in a scholarly biography of one of the most inspiring natural philosophers of the 17th century.
Great exposition of Descartes.......2000-11-07
Anyone interested in the ideas of Rene Descartes would be mad to miss this book. As the title suggests, emphasis is placed on the development of his ideas, placing them in context and giving a clear exposition of the concepts involved, with only as much personal background as is interesting and necessary to this end. Gaukroger is justly regarded as one of the world's leading Descartes scholars. And I'm sure he is very kind to dogs.
Well written book; have remarks though........1997-08-26
It was Descartes whose analysis that dogs don't have feelings led to the justification of all manner of cruelty towards animals. For anyone planning to read this book, also expand your horizons and read "The Intelligence of Dogs" by Stanley Coren, psychologist and dog trainer
Average customer rating:
|
Descartes para principiantes
Dave Robinson , and
Chris Garratt
Manufacturer: Errepar
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
 General
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
Reference & Collections
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
Spanish
| Foreign Language Nonfiction
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Biografías y memorias
| Libros en español
| Formats
| Books
Referencia y Colecciones
| Biografías y memorias
| Libros en español
| Formats
| Books
No-Ficción
| Libros en español
| Formats
| Books
| Automotriz
| Ciencias Sociales
| Crimen y Criminales
| Educación
| Estudios de la Mujer
| Feriados
| Filosofía
| Gobierno
| Hechos Verídicos
| Planeamiento Urbano y Desarrollo
| Política
| Sucesos de Actualidad
| Transportación
ASIN: 9879065824 |
Average customer rating:
- engaging combination of essay and biography
- The Greek poet Ovid
- a disgrace
- READ THIS BOOK!!!!
- A Lifetime's Work
|
Cogito, Ergo Sum: The Life of Rene Descartes
Richard A. Watson
Manufacturer: David R. Godine Publisher
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
Artists, Architects & Photographers
| Arts & Literature
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
Philosophers
| Professionals & Academics
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Philosophy
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
History, 17th & 18th Century
| Philosophy
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
Modern
| Philosophy
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
All Titles
| Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007
| Stores
| Books
ASIN: 1567921841 |
Customer Reviews:
engaging combination of essay and biography.......2007-04-03
Other reviewers have singled out comparatively minor mistakes in Watson's book, and some have complained about the way he injects himself into Descartes's story. But I like the way Watson makes it personal, recounting stories from his travels and laying out his own philosophical attitudes in some punchy prose. I suppose if someone wants a cold retelling of the facts of Descartes's life, another book would be better. But as a long personal essay that aims to explain why the author finds his subject so interesting, I think it's very well done, and a good read.
The Greek poet Ovid.......2006-07-09
I have read Watson's book up till page 72, waiting for it to get better and more relevant. We hear a lot, for instance about the author's stay in a rented house in Franeker, about Dutch licorice and bread, about the family line of Descartes -his great-great uncles, and so on-, but nothing on Descartes' philosophy. That may come after page 72. I don't know. I stopped there, because Watson at that point argues that Descartes at La Flèche will have read "the Greek authors Ovid and Seneca the Tragic". That did it for me. I quitted.
a disgrace.......2005-11-30
Richard Watson certainly seems like an amiable man, a great asset for your vernissage, your cocktail party, or any other function that merits a lively imagination above actual knowledge. I won't bore you stiff by addressing every blatant error in this book: it will suffice to say that our Prof. Disney has, single-handedly, come up with an entirely new successor to Prince Frederick-Henry of Orange (1584 - 1647): a certain Henry III. All it takes is a monkey (Descartes would have loved that) with a computer, to google himself to enlightenment: that the good prince Frederick Henry was in fact succeeded by his son William II, who was succeeded by his son, William III, Prince of Orange and King of England, Schotland and Ireland. 'Elementary, my dear Watson'. (And no, Richard: Descartes didn't meet Huygens in 1630, they first met in 1635, and no, no, Richard: 'Stadhouder' is not quite the same as 'Commander-in-Chief', and no, no, no, Richard: Constantijn Huygens served two, not three Stadhouders as first secretary, etc. etc.). All this nonsense in one page (160).
READ THIS BOOK!!!!.......2005-07-05
In Cogito Ergo Sum, Richard Watson, a distinguished Cartesian scholar and a former professor of philosophy at Washington University in St. Louis, takes us on a grand journey across Europe as he follows in the footsteps of Rene Descartes, the Father of Modern Philosophy.
Descartes's motto was that a life well hidden is a life well lived, but after forty years of extensive research, Watson takes Descartes's well hidden life and reveals it to us as no one else has. From his birth to his death, we learn about the life and times of Descartes. We read of Descartes's skills as a card shark, of his smoking pot, the fathering of his daughter, his romances, his travels, his inventions, his math skills, and all of the good times and bad times that come his way. Watson also debunks many of the long-standing stories associated with Descartes. Even for the casual reader, Watson's clear and colloquial writing style entertains us as if he were Descartes' own friend. And through it all we learn not only about Descartes, but also of Europe as it develops during Descartes's lifetime.
Watson also describes his own amusing adventures as he travels across Europe during his research for this book. In his quest to visit all fourteen of the farms that were owned by the Descates family, Watson and his wife, Patty Jo, test their hiking skills as they tromp through the Alps and along trails with sheer drops of 800 feet. Watson is no stranger to adventure. He is also the author of the classic American cave adventure, The Longest Cave.
Cogito Ergo Sum is one of those books that you enjoy more every time you read it. With this book, Watson has raised the bar for which all other Descartes biographies will be judged.
A Lifetime's Work.......2005-05-28
This biography is a rich and wonderful achievement. It clearly represents the fruit of a lifetime's devotion to studying one of the great philosophers. Watson, unlike other biographers of Descartes -- and, remarkably, there are not many -- decides to get the life right. To this end, he not only went to the archives, but personally traced Descartes's itinerary across Europe. The result is a highly readable, entertaining, beautifully written narrative, one that corrects many of the myths and errors that had crept into earlier studies. The New York Public Library named it one of the 25 best books of the year in 2002 -- it's no wonder why.
Average customer rating:
- A splendidly researched and vividly written biography.
|
Descartes: His Life and Thought
Genevieve Rodis-Lewis
Manufacturer: Cornell University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
General
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
Philosophers
| Professionals & Academics
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
Scientists
| Professionals & Academics
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Philosophy
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
History, 17th & 18th Century
| Philosophy
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
History of Science
| History & Philosophy
| Science
| Subjects
| Books
All Titles
| Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007
| Stores
| Books
Biographies & Memoirs
| Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007
| Stores
| Books
Nonfiction
| Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007
| Stores
| Books
Science
| Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007
| Stores
| Books
Similar Items:
-
Descartes: An Intellectual Biography
ASIN: 0801486270 |
Book Description
Winner of the Grand Prix of the Acadmie Franaise for lifetime scholarly achievement, Genevive Rodis-Lewis is uniquely qualified to celebrate Ren Descartes. This major intellectual biography illuminates the personal and historical events of Descartes's life, from his birth and early years in France to his death in Sweden, his burial, and the fate of his remains.
Concerned not only with historical events but also with the development of Descartes's personality, Rodis-Lewis speculates on the effect childhood impressions may have had on his philosophy and scientific theories. She considers in detail his friendships, particularly with Isaac Beeckman and Marin Mersenne. Primarily on the basis of his private correspondence, Rodis-Lewis gives a thorough and balanced discussion of his personality. The Descartes she depicts is by turns generous and unforgiving, arrogant and open-minded, loyal in his friendship but eager for the isolation his work required.
Rodis-Lewis clarifies Descartes's school days, his family's circumstances and social status, the location of the famous "stove" where Descartes first discovered the foundations of his science, his military life, and the birth and death of his daughter. She is careful to point out the gaps that remain in the record of Descartes's life. Drawing on Descartes's writings and his public and private correspondence, she corrects the errors of earlier biographies and clarifies many obscure episodes in the philosopher's life.
Customer Reviews:
A splendidly researched and vividly written biography........2000-03-03
Genevieve Rodis-Lew is Professor Emerita at the Sorbonne and has written a splendid biography on the life and thought of a major and influential 17th Century European philosopher. Ably translated into English by Jane Marie Todd, Descartes is vividly presented in the context of his time. Drawing upon his own correspondence, Rodis-Lewis traces his disillusion with the Jesuit scholastic method and his attraction mathematics and then to metaphysics. Descartes emerges for the modern reader as a complete and complex man, so much more than a mere footnote in the history of science or the evolution of western philosophical traditions.
Book Description
Rene Descartes had a remarkably short working life, yet his contribution to philosophy and physics have endured to this day. He is perhaps best known for his statement, "Cogito, ergo sum," the cornerstone of his metaphysics. Descartes did not intend the metaphysics to stand apart from his
scientific work, which included important investigations into physics, mathematics, and optics. In this book, Sorell shows that Descarates was, above all, an advocate and practitioner of the new mathematical approach to physics, and that he developed his philosophies to support his discoveries in
the sciences.
Customer Reviews:
Clear, Informative Introduction to Descartes.......2007-08-17
This is an enjoyable and informative introduction to Descartes, his work, and his philosophy. Some may hesitate to delve into Descartes work because of its complexity and denseness of thought, but this "very short introduction" comes to the rescue, orienting us to Descartes' major ideas, their developmental history, and the context in which he developed them. The book is greatly interesting to read, and even the discourses on some of Descartes' more conceptual thought are treated with exceptional clarity. Although the book focuses on the developmental history of Descartes' investigation into the sciences (particularly in optics), the book also discusses his contributions to mathematical geometry, as well as some of his thoughts on faith and reason. If you are looking for an introduction to Descartes, it is hard to go wrong with this well-written and enjoyable pocket volume.
The Ghost of Descartes is still with us.......2006-09-25
Descartes is one of the most influential Western philosophers, and this book is a useful first introduction to his life and ideas. The strength of the book is in positioning Descartes' writing primarily within the political and ideological currents of his time, and showing how exactly he's been forced to edit and finesse his writings in order to please the censorship and his critics. This helps explain why some of his works were not as straightforwardly written as one might have liked. The other reason has probably to do with the sheer ambition of Descartes' chief enterprise, to discover one sure method of arriving at explanations and solutions of the most pressing scientific and philosophical problems of the time. The enormity of this scope meant that some of these methods would necessarily be to vague to be of any practical use in mathematics or physics, and within a generation after Descartes' death Newtonian gravitation completely prevailed. However, in the realm of philosophy, Descarts' thought managed to be of interest until the present day.
This book is very well written, and if you are interested in finding out more about Descartes, it would be a worthwhile first read.
Not the Descartes of the philosophy text- book.......2005-03-15
This work does not approach Descartes in the usual way: i.e. by showing his place in the Western philosophical tradition, and especially showing how the modern age in Thought began with his cogito. It tries instead to give a more complete picture of Descartes interests and activities, with focus on his mathematical physics, and scientific work. There is also a brief telling of the life of Descartes who Sorrell believes was less isolated than he is usually made out to be. There is one painful detail. Descartes said that the greatest sorrow of his life was the loss when she was only five of his out-of- wedlock daughter. Descartes religious faith is also discussed. The suggestion however is that of all his work it is the famous 'I think therefore I am' which is most responsible for his continuing fame.
Useful for novices and advanced students alike........2003-02-14
Those who have not yet studied Descartes will enjoy this clearly written introduction to Descartes' life and thought. However, even seasoned philosophy students are also liable to find much of interest in Sorell's DESCARTES. For most philosophy students, Descartes is more or less synonymous with the DISCOURSE ON METHOD and the MEDITATIONS ON FIRST PHILOSOPHY, and Descartes' scientific and mathematical work tend to be regarded as almost irrelevant and disconnected afterthoughts. The brilliance of Sorell's book is to show how Descartes' work constitutes an integrated whole, where the DISCOURSE and the MEDITATIONS are more a preliminary step in Descartes' project than the endpoint of his philosophy that we often take it to be.
An excellent book to get to know Descartes.......2000-07-01
It is a really easy-to-read book. People who just start to be interested in Philosophy will not find this book intimadating or overwhelming. The author also points out and explains the "errors" of Descartes's thinking. An excellent book to be added to your collection.
Product Description
These two great seventeenth-century philosophers aimed to break free of oppressive traditions. Free scientific inquiry led them to skeptically question everything, though they also tried to reconcile science with religious faith. Both Descartes and Bacon extolled the individual, arguing that the human mind can penetrate the deepest secrets of existence. Their ideas formulated the problems that would occupy philosophers for the next three hundred years.
The World of Philosophy series is a dramatic presentation, in understandable language, of the concerns, questions, interests, and overall outlook of the worlds great philosophers and philosophical traditions. Special emphasis on clear and relevant explanations gives you a new arsenal of insights toward living a better life.
Customer Reviews:
Brilliant.......2001-07-07
It wil open your mind and your eyes to a whole new world. The concepts in this book is what modern philosophy is based on! It is as painful as a root canal to read but if you can read a fully comprehend the concepts you have achived more than you can ever imagine. I was truly blown away!
Books:
- Dinner with a Perfect Stranger: An Invitation Worth Considering
- Eisenhower
- Eleni
- Every Second Counts
- Faith of My Fathers
- Finding Fish: A Memoir
- Geisha: A Life
- George Washington: The Founding Father (Eminent Lives)
- Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity
- Helen Keller (Scholastic Biography)
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- The World Is Flat
- Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer
- Development Economics: From the Poverty to the Wealth of Nations
- Executive's Guide to Web Services
- History: Fiction or Science
- Modern Nutrition in Health and Disease
- Latin American Marketing Information Sourcebook
- Accounting Principles + Solving Accounting Excercises on the IBM PC Microcomputer 2e Set
- Emotional Capital: Maximising the Intangible Assets at the Heart of Brand and Business Success
- Tallgrass Prairie Wildflowers 2: A Field Guide to Common Wildflowers and Plants of the Prairie Midwe
Descartes: A Biography
Paris: The Secret History
Vaccine: The Controversial Story of Medicine's Greatest Lifesaver
The Courtier and the Heretic: Leibniz, Spinoza, and the Fate of God in the Modern World
Uncertainty: Einstein, Heisenberg, Bohr, and the Struggle for the Soul of Science
