Alexander West
Mr. Lawrence
AP European History Seminar, Period 4
14 August 2018
The Life of René Descartes
My birthplace was La Haye, France. Since my mother passed away in childbirth the year after being born and my father remarried, my childhood was lonely. I coped with this at Jesuit College since my learning there was more relaxed due to being friends with the rector. I am a thinker, soldier, mathematician, and gentleman. Being born in the high social class that I was, the latter of these was the most important to me in my younger days. (Strathern 12) It was leisurely for me to rise at noon and travel at will. Only after joining the army of the Prince of Orange in Holland I met my friend, Beeckman, who I would communicate with for the rest of my life. At twenty-four years of age, I had already conceived a universal method of understanding the universe, which I remember as my most enlightening moment. (Strathern 77)
Descartes’ three dreams that allegedly gave him the “universal method” of understanding the world completely through math and science
It was a cold night outside, but I was comfortable while sleeping on my stove. The temperature was the only thing that I didn’t like about my life here in Germany. It reminded me about my life as a child, living in La Féliche. I was so cold, in fact, I always wore a scarf because my neck was the part of me the frozen breeze targeted the most. Once the winter set in, I had decided to live in a poele, the French term for a stove. One night in 1619, the heat had gotten to me. Sitting in the steamed-up sauna that I had created for myself, a vision appeared before me. One may think that this was a vision representing the religious views I held, but it isn’t. It brought together all of the ideas that I had about science and gave light to connections that I never before imagined, a mathematical picture of the world.
In the first dream, I began to feel a wind flowing around my body. I was walking down the street towards the college in La Fléche that contained a church. My senses were completely overcome by the currents of air and the feeling of myself falling. (Davis & Hirsh 1) I turned around as I heard something behind me. I vaguely recognized them so I decided to greet them. As soon as I do, a gust of wind picks me up and flings me against the wall behind me as if there were fantoms circling. At the center of the courtyard I am standing at, a different man calls for me and says that a friend of mine has a melon that he wants to give me.
I can tell I’m dreaming again as I hear a noise like a crack of lightning. Sparks filled the darkness in my room. This is soon replaced with my final vision of my desk. There is a book of poetry and a dictionary laying on it. What happened next cannot be understood to those who listen, these symbolic events only entertain me, the one who experienced it. (Strathern 21) I opened the book randomly to the verse of Ausonius, “Quod vitae sectabor iter”. This translates to “What path shall I take in life?” Then appeared a stranger and read the quote "Est et non" (“Yes and no”). As I went to show the man where in the book this quote was from, it momentarily disappeared and returned a short time later. Then, I told the man that I would show him a better verse that started with "Quod vitae sectabor iter." After I said this, the whole dream dissolved. (Davis & Hirsh 1).
Descartes’ meeting of Beeckman, 1618, Breta, Netherlands
The day was bright, I found myself walking the streets of Breda. The atmosphere was pleasant and all of the people strolling by me put me in a good mood. There were people all around but the certain man caught my eye as he was hanging a poster on the wall nearby. As I am French in origin, the text on the sign that was being hung up was foreign to me. A language that I am familiar with, though, is the language of math. Right away, I could tell that the paper outlined a mathematical problem. I still struggled with reading the Dutch text though. From my life there, I had picked up a few words, but not enough to allow for an accurate understanding of the instructions.
After observing the sign for a little while longer, I decided to approach a local to simply ask for a translation of the poster. I turned to a man beside me and asked him to kindly explain what the text had said. At first, this man was clearly unimpressed by me as he treated me as an ignorant French officer. He said that he would only translate if I agreed to come up with the solution and giving it to him. I agreed and thanked the Dutchman for his assistance.
The next day, I had arrived at the Dutchman’s home. He had seemed surprised that I showed up after all. Once I walked him through the solution, the man had seemed more impressed than the previous day. According to him, the problem was solved in an “exceptionally brilliant fashion” (Strathern 18). This is how I met Isaac Beeckman. I learned later that he is an exceptional mathematician and philosopher. Beeckman was the figure in my life that had inspired me once again to pursue philosophy and mathematics. I had previously lost my drive for these after leaving La Fléche. (Strathern 18)
A letter to Beeckman, 1619
I am preparing for departure as I write to you. I thought I would send this before leaving since I had just received your letter. I believe that there will be a lasting friendship between us because of out similarity of minds. Right now though, you shouldn’t expect much talk from me because I am setting out on my trip around Europe. Once I settle more definitely, I will write to you again. At the moment, the Germans are not looking for soldiers. The war has not broken out just yet. I expect the demand for men to serve in the army will happen soon though, so I will need to wait until I am out of reach of the other soldiers when I contact you again. You were the one who renewed my curiosity in discovery. My mind has been growing farther and farther from knowledge. But now, as you have redirected it toward learning, I will go on to discover again. If I come up with any new ideas, you will be the first that I contact to review what I have made. Any ideas of yours that I use will allow you to take credit for the work I have done. (Bennett 2)
Another, more aggressive letter to Beeckman, 1630
I believe that your attitude towards me is not of malice but instead of sickness. The things that you have said are so implausible that I feel sympathetic for you. Since we were friends formerly, I will provide you with a few cures to your illness. I will now explain how ideas in philosophy and mathematics come about. When someone states an opinion or doctrine, he is not teaching it to another person but rather just repeating it. If there is no evidence for what they are saying, it is worth nothing. The only things that a person can teach someone else are facts. This includes things such as language and history. Also, if a person states a conclusion they have made, it does not necessarily mean that it is correct. If there is no supporting evidence for the idea, it is not considered teaching. It is the thought process to support the theory that should be credited. (Bennett 18).
In our situation, I did not learn anything from your published books. You did not teach me anything, which is why I take pity on you for believing such. I will accept this because of your illness but it is important to know that all of my work is original. You say that I readily accepted all of the arguments that you have presented to me? This is untrue. I only accepted them because everything that you told me was my ideas that I had come up with prior to you. The only reason that you had told me about them before you is because what you had said completely coincidentally aligned with the truth. So don’t happen to overthink the idea that I have taken credit for your work as it will only make your illness worse. On a related note, even if a person knows something for a fact, it doesn’t mean that the fact is necessarily theirs. You are treating ideas as we treat material objects. In reality, many people can learn ideas from others and no one person has exclusive rights to a thought. “[Descartes devotes about six pages to hammering away at the idea of ‘ownership’ of propositions or of sciences… Eventually:]” (Bennett 19).
I shouldn’t be rough with you because I accept the possibility that that “your sickness may be at an advanced stage.” There is a saying that when an idea is in disagreement with reason, “not even God” could make the idea true. I believe that this is too much of an overstatement. Personally, my opinion is that the saying should go “not even an angel could do it”. You have leveled me with the angels meaning the smartest humans are in level with God himself.
“[A final page is spent saying that Descartes is not writing in anger but purely in a sympathetic attempt to help a sick friend.]” (Bennett 19).
Works Cited
Bennett, Jonathan. Selected Correspondence of Descartes. www.earlymoderntexts.com/assets/pdfs/descartes1619_1.pdf.
Davis, Phillip J, and Reuben Hirsh. DESCARTES' DREAM, 26 Mar. 2004, 11:10, physics.weber.edu/carroll/honors/descarte.htm.
Strathern, Paul. Descartes in 90 Minutes. I.R. Dee, 1996.