tailieunhanh - DESCARTES: A Biography

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. | A Biography DESMOND CLARKE Cambridge g 9780521823012 DESCARTES A Biography René Descartes is best remembered today for writing I think therefore I am but his main 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. To a great extent he was the midwife to the Scientific Revolution and a significant contributor to its key concepts. In four major publications he fashioned a philosophical system that accommodated the needs of these new sciences and thereby earned 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 scepticism served mainly to fan the flames of libertinism. Descartes died in Stockholm in obscurity but soon became one of the most famous philosophers of the seventeenth century a status that he continues to enjoy today. This is the first biography in English that addresses the full range of Descartes interests in theology philosophy and the sciences and that traces his intellectual development through his entire career. Desmond M. Clarke is Professor of Philosophy at the National University of Ireland Cork. He received a . from the National University of Ireland was Jean Monnet Fellow at the European University Institute in Florence and has been elected to the Royal Irish Academy. He is the author of a number of books on Descartes and the seventeenth century most recently Descartes s Theory of .