Descartes: His Life and Thought

296 Pages·1999·17.572 MB·English

by  Geneviève Rodis-Lewis

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DESCARTES
Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2019 with funding from
The Arcadia Fund
https://archive.org/details/descarteshislifeOOrodLO
DESCARTES
His
Life and Thought
Genevieve Rodis-Lewis
Translated by Jane Marie Todd
Cornell University Press
Ithaca and London
Originally published in French under the title Descartes, Biographie, by Genevieve
Rodis-Lewis, © 1995 by Calmann-Levy.
The publisher gratefully acknowledges the assistance of the French Ministry of Culture in
defraying part of the cost of translation.
Translation copyright © 1998 by Cornell University
All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or parts
thereof, must not be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from
the publisher. For information, address Cornell University Press, Sage House,
512 East State Street, Ithaca, New York 14850.
First published 1998 by Cornell University Press.
Printed in the United States of America.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Rodis-Lewis, Genevieve
[Descartes. English]
Descartes : his life and thought / Genevieve Rodis-Lewis ; Jane
Marie Todd, translator,
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8014-3372-X (alk. paper)
1. Descartes, Rene, 1596—1650. 2. Philosophers—France—
France—Biography. I. Title.
B1873.R6313 1998
*94
[B]—DC21 97-38681
ISBN 0-8014-3372-x (cloth)
Cornell University Press strives to utilize environmentally responsible suppliers
and materials to the fullest extent possible in the publishing of its books. Such
materials include vegetable-based, low-VOC inks and acid-free papers that are
also either recycled, totally chlorine-free, or partly composed of nonwood fibers
Cloth printing 1098765432 1
Contents
Prologue vii
Descartes’s Biographers xi
1. Family and Childhood 1
2. Studies 8
3. Two Decisive Years 24
4. Travels and Exercises in the Method 49
5. The Netherlands (1629-41) 73
6. The Netherlands (1642-49) 143
7. The End in Sweden 188
Epilogue 216
Notes 227
Index 257