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25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Discombobulating, February 15, 2006
This review is from: Descartes's Secret Notebook: A True Tale of Mathematics, Mysticism, and the Quest to Understand the Universe (Hardcover)
I had read Amir Aczel's book on Fermat's Last Theorem, and I felt the same way, more confused than enlightened. The problem is that Mr. Aczel has a less than interesting style: the reading goes by very quickly and it just does not feel like one is gaining a lot of facts when one is gaining some facts. I thought Simon Singh did a better job with Fermat and I can't help but think that someone else can do a better job with this material.
It seems like Mr. Aczel has better things to do and more things to say at the end of the book, so he rushes to get to the good stuff only to reveal that there is very little good stuff.
Rene Descarte has always been a very interesting person to me. I had read a rather extensive biography of the man many years ago as an undergrad, so what Mr. Aczel had to bring to the story is interesting but not surprising. He does a pedantic job of relating the basics with some interesting tidbits thrown in, yet his style makes the interesting seem superficial.
The entire time, Mr. Aczel is moving towards the big mysterious reveal, the reason for yet another Descarte biography. He keeps hinting at a great earthshattering surprise, yet when it does come, the surprise is hardly surprising. The ingenious work that Descarte did in defiance of the church authorities of his day is indeed impressive but Mr. Aczel does not do the revelation justice. He never fully engages the reader in the development of the discovery and he fails to explain the difficulty of the mathematic is ignored altogether.
It is a good short treatment of Descarte's life, but there is no heft, very little mathematical detail, and nonexistent mystery in what is promised as a mysterious and revelatory book.
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21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
I guess this is a memoir?, February 9, 2006
This review is from: Descartes's Secret Notebook: A True Tale of Mathematics, Mysticism, and the Quest to Understand the Universe (Hardcover)
James Frey has taught us that it's OK to call a work of non-fiction that isn't entirely true a memoir. So maybe this is book is also a memoir?
Aczel has received a number of positive reviews on this book, for example from a Boston newspaper and from two of Amazon's "Top Reviewers." But none of these people are actually competent to judge the contents of the book. All they can really do is summarize what's there and say that they enjoyed reading it.
As is well documented by other reviewers, this book is mostly just a biography and actually has very little about the secret notebook. Aczel does a reasonably good job of summarizing these secondary sources, but almost nothing else he says is true. For example, he says that Descartes invented the ruler and compass construction of the square root and says that the Greeks didn't know how to do this. If any real historian of science had looked over his manuscript, this boner never would have appeared in print. The publisher should be ashamed for propagating such misinformation. If they'd spent a little time and a couple of bucks having a real historian of mathematics review the manuscript, this sort of pathetic error could have been corrected. But the publisher and the author apparently have such contempt for the reading public that they don't care if they publish falsehoods. Or maybe they just didn't want to delay a pre-Christmas release date?
This isn't an isolated example. The book is loaded with nonsense, from matheamtical facts to dates to what the fifth element represented in Plato's cosmology. And the really pathetic thing is that almost none of these sophomoric errors has anything to do with the biography of Descartes or with the secret notebook. Aczel seems to have included them as window dressing or page padding or perhaps just a desire to appear learned. It's an old problem: the conceit that any semi-retired mathematician can "deduce" the history of mathematics the way he deduces a theorem, and he doesn't actually have to do any research.
Shame on Aczel and on Broadway publishers. Let the buyer beware!
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37 of 42 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fascinating Look at the Life, Thought and Mystery That Was Rene Descartes, November 22, 2005
This review is from: Descartes's Secret Notebook: A True Tale of Mathematics, Mysticism, and the Quest to Understand the Universe (Hardcover)
To look at a portrait of Descartes, one would consider him somewhat of a fop. And if one were to strictly consider Descartes' contributions to mathematics and philosophy, then he might be seen as a nerdish fop. But this portrait couldn't be farther from the reality that was Descartes' life. He was a world traveler and adventurer in addition to being one of the most brilliant minds the world has produced - before or since.
But you wouldn't know it from reading current biographies of Descartes. They are in the main turgidly written tomes; the only excitement they instill in the reader is wondering when they will end. I began to despair of there ever coming into print a biography of Descartes that captures both the thought and details of his fascinating life. Until now.
Amir Aczel combines the life and thought of Descartes in a slim breezy volume with an enthusiasm for his subject rarely seen in this sort of biography. His talent for explaining mathematical ideas and formulas that might seem daunting to the lay reader only adds to our enjoyment and deepens our appreciation for this most prolific philosopher-scientist.
To say Descartes led an interesting life is an understatement, and perhaps the most interesting thing about was the aura of intrigue and mystery in which it was enveloped. Aczel uses this as his starting point, investigating the mystery of Descartes' secret notebook which survived his death and part of which was copied by Leibniz, who easily broke the code in which it was written.
What was in this notebook that was so dangerous that Descartes felt compelled to write it in code? Aczel rightly decides to view the work in context of Descartes' life and thought, examining the charges heard in Descartes' day that he was a Rosicrucian, that he was writing heresy, and embracing the banned theories of Copernicus. Descartes, for his part, feared the Inquisition, especially after learning the fate of Galileo. He sought refuge in Holland, only to become once again embroiled in controversy. He reluctantly accepted an invitation from Queen Christina of Sweden as her personal tutor, thinking perhaps he could leave his detractors behind. But even his death in Sweden a short time later would become controversial. Did he die of natural causes, or did his enemies in the Queen's court, fearing his influence on the Queen, poison him?
And why was Leibniz so interested in copying the notebook? And why were his notes only fully understood in the late Twentieth century? Aczel tackles these issues and offers reasoned explanations based on the facts at hand. All this makes the reader want to know more about the life and thought of Descartes and his times, and that makes Aczel's book a success.
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