Descartes: A Biography

ISBN-13: 9780521823012 / Angielski / Twarda / 2006 / 520 str.

Desmond M. Clarke

Opis

Although Rene 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.

Recenzje

Review of the hardback: 'Desmond Clarke … does a very good job of tracing the details of Descartes's life – the many comings and goings, the exchanges with other thinkers. Clarke takes the often fragmentary testimony that we have from the letters, the accounts found in earlier biographies and the newly discovered facts, and works them into a convincing narrative … the reader will be able to learn where its subject was then and what he was thinking about … Clarke also supplements this factual information with summaries and interpretations of key questions in Descartes's thought … such commentaries are essential in the biography of a figure important primarily for what he thought … This book will be of great use to the scholar in the history of philosophy or the history of science who needs to know the complex details of Descartes's life …' The Times Literary Supplement

Spis treści

1. A lawyer's education; 2. In search of a career (1612–22); 3. Magic and mechanism: Paris (1622–8); 4. A fabulous world (1629–33); 5. The scientific essays and the Discourse on Method (1633–7); 6. Retreat and defence (1637–9); 7. Metaphysics in a hornet's nest (1639–42); 8. The French liar's monkey and the Utrecht crisis; 9. Descartes and Princess Elizabeth; 10. The Principles of Philosophy (1644); 11. The quarrel and final rift with Regius; 12. Once more into battle: the Leiden theologians (1647); 13. Thoughts of retirement; 14. Death in Sweden; Appendix 1. Descartes' principal works; Appendix 2. Places where Descartes lived; Bibliography.