I am obliged to respect Descartes for his mathematical innovations (Cartesian co-ordinates allowing the marriage of geometry and algebra, index representation of powers, and others), and of course, "I think, therefore I am" is an important step in the philosophies of identity and epistemology (although I'm not sure everyone who refers to it knows how it's intended). His philosophical discourse in this book is one of those that spends a lot of time trying to reconcile notions of God, heaven, the soul etc., with logical sense. On this account, I think it fails - however, it is quite delightful to read the writings of such a pompous and arrogant man. He is so preoccupied with hes greatness, quite oblivious to the ridiculous impression he makes. I guess there's something typically French about it, which makes it entertaining rather than boring - he reminds me of the cousin in the BBC pride and prejudice, Mr. Collins (hopefully more charismatic... dressed up in his 17th century fashionable French attire).
An interesting side-note of this book is that Descartes self-censored some of his ideas, given the controversy surrounding Galileo in the preceding years. Galileo's ridiculous idea that the Earth might revolve around the Sun earned him a spot on the Heretics for Burning List, and some of Descartes ideas about the origins of mind and knowledge could have landed him in similar strife.
No comments:
Post a Comment