‘Rene Descartes: "Life and Works"’

Rene Descartes was born on March 31^st, 1596, in Touraine, being the third child of a councillor of the Parliament of Brittany. In 1604 his father sent him to the college of La F1eche which had been founded by Henry IV and was directed by the Fathers of the Society of Jesus. Descartes remained at the college until 1612, the last few years being given to the study of logic, philosophy and mathematics. He tells us of his extreme desire to acquire knowledge, and it is clear that he was an ardent student and a gifted pupil. "I did not feel that I was esteemed inferior to my fellow students, although there were amongst them some destined to fill the places of our masters", It is clear from his writings that he considered that he had been given the best education available within the framework of tradition. Yet on looking back he came to the conclusion that the traditional learning, in some of its branches at least, was not based on any solid foundation. Thus he remarks sarcastically that "philosophy teaches us to speak with an appearance of truth about all things and causes us to be admired by the less learned",  and that though it has been cultivated for centuries by the best minds "no single thing is to be found in it which is not a matter of dispute and which in consequence is not dubious." Mathematics, indeed, delighted him because of its certainty and clarity, "but I did not yet understand its true use".

After leaving La F1eche, Descartes amused himself for a short while, but he soon resolved 'to study and to learn from the book of the world, as he put it, seeking a knowledge which would be useful for life. He accordingly attached himself to the army of Prince Maurice of Nassau. This may seem to have been a somewhat odd move to make. But Descartes did not accept pay as a soldier, and he combined his new profession with mathematical studies. He wrote a number of papers and notes including a treatise on music, the Compendium Musicae, which was published after his death.

In 1619 Descartes left the service of Maurice of Nassau and went to Germany, where he witnessed the coronation of Emperor Ferdinand at Frankfurt. Joining the army of Maximilian of Bavaria, he was stationed at Neuberg on the Danube; and it was at this time that in secluded reflection, he began to lay the foundations of his philosophy. On November 10^th, 1619, he had three consecutive dreams which convinced him that his mission was to seek truth by reason, and he made a vow to make a pilgrimage to the shrine of our Lady of Loreto in Italy. Further military service in Bohemia and Hungary and travel in Silesia, northern Germany and the Netherlands, followed by a visit to his father at Rennes, prevented him from fulfilling this vow for the time being, but in 1623 he made his way to Italy and visited Loreto before proceeding to Rome.

For a few years Descartes resided at Paris, where he enjoyed the friendship of men like Mersenne, a fellow pupil of La Fleche, and the encouragement of Cardinal de Berule. But he found life at Paris too distracting, and in 1628 he retired to Holland, where he remained until 1649, apart from visits to France in 1644, 1647 and 1648.

The publication of his Traite du monde was suspended because of the condemnation of Galileo, and the work was not published until 1677. But in 1637 Descartes published. in French his Discourse on the methods of rightly conducting the reason and seeking for truth in the sciences, together with essays on meteors, dioptrics and geometry. The rules for the direction of the mind had apparently been written in 1628, though it was published posthumously. In 1641 appeared the Meditations on first philosophy in a Latin version. This was accompanied by six sets of objections or criticisms submitted by various theologians and philosophers and by Descartes' answers to these objections. The first set consists of objections by Caterus, a Dutch theologian, the second of criticisms by a group of theologians and philosophers, the third, fourth and fifth of objections by Hobbes, Arnauld, and Gassendi respectively, and the sixth of criticisms by a second group of theologians and philosophers. In 1642 another edition of the Meditations was published which contained in addition a seventh set of objections by the Jesuit Bourdin, together with Descartes' replies and his letter to Father Dinet, also a Jesuit, who had been one of the philosopher's instructors at La Fleche and for whom he had a warm regard. A French edition of the Meditation was published in 1647 and a second French edition, containing also the seven sets of objections, in 1661. The French translation had been made by the Duc de Luynes, not by Descartes, but the first edition of it had been seen and partly revised by the philosopher.

The principles of philosophy was published in Latin in 1644. It was translated into French by the Abbe Claude Picot, and this translation, after having been read by Descartes, was published in 1647, being prefaced by a letter from the author to the translator in which the plan of the work is explained. The treatise entitled the Passions of the Soul (1649) was written in French and published more, it appears, owing to the entreaties of friends than to the author's own desire, shortly before Descartes' death. In addition we possess an unfinished dialogue. The search after truth by the light of nature, a Latin translation of which appeared in 1701, and the Latin Notes directed against a certain programme, which had been composed by Regius Le Roy of Utrecht, first a friend and later an opponent of the philosopher. Finally the works of Descartes contain a mass of correspondence which is of considerable value for the elucidation of his thought.

In September 1649 Descartes left Holland for Sweden in response to the pressing invitation of Queen Christina who wished to be instructed in his philosophy. The rigours of the Swedish winter, however, coupled with the queen's practice of expecting Descartes, who was accustomed to lie for a long time in bed, engaged in reflection, to come to the library at five in the morning, were too much for the poor man, and he was not strong enough to withstand an attack of fever which developed at the end of January 1650. And on February 11^th he died.