Descartes

The Life and times of a Genius

By Grayling, A. C.

Publishers Summary:
Scientist, mathematician, traveler, soldier—and spy—Rene Descartes was one of the founders of the modern world. His life coincided with an extraordinary time in history: the first half of the miraculous seventeenth century, replete with genius in the arts and sciences, and wracked by civil and international conflicts across Europe. But at his birth in 1596 the world was still dominated by medieval beliefs in phenomena such as miracles and spontaneous generation. It was Descartes who identified the intellectual tools his peers needed to free themselves from the grip of religious authority and in doing so he founded modern philosophy.In this new biography, A. C. Grayling tells the story of Descartes’ life, and places it in his tumultuous times—with the unexpected result that an entirely new aspect of the story comes to light.

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ISBN
978-0-80271-501-2
Publisher
Walker & Company


REVIEWS

Library Journal

Reviewed on October 1, 2006

Popular critic Grayling (philosophy, Birbeck Coll., Univ. of London;Among the Dead Cities: The History and Moral Legacy of the WWII Bombing of Civilians in Germany and Japan ) provides an accessible and engaging biography of modernity's founding thinker, Ren� Descartes (1596-1650). Paying equal attention to and balancing his descriptions of Descartes's development of a Western foundational concept in philosophy, his experi...Log In or Sign Up to Read More

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