Customer Reviews

Descartes: A Biography

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

I was searching for a detailed history of Descartes, that is exactly what you get with this book. the details are so specific it almost becomes painful. the research and detail into Descartes life is very well documented within the text as a result of an endless review of Descartes letters.

The book is more detail as to this life and the authors interpretation of his thoughts than of Descartes writings.