Cogito, Ergo Sum: The Life of Rene Descartes

Watson, Richard A.

ISBN 10: 1567921841 / ISBN 13: 9781567921847

Published by David R. Godine, Publisher, Boston, 2002

pp. viii, 375. 8vo. Quarter maroon cloth over cream boards, gilt lettering to the spine. Black-and-white photographs, portraits, photographic reproductions, illustrations, et al. No detectable flaws, contents remain bright, clean, and unmarked with tight, sound binding; near fine and housed in near fine dustjacket. Rene Descartes is the philosophical architect of our modern world. In metaphysics, he established the view that mind and body are distinct substances, a position foundational for any belief that the human soul is immortal. In mathematics, he invented analytic geometry - the basis of calculus - which makes physics as we know it possible. Descartes perfected the method of proposing and testing hypotheses with experiments that anyone can repeat, which forms the basis of modern science. In optics, he discovered and described laws of refraction and reflection. In medicine, he was a pioneer in vivisection and anatomical description for understanding the human body. In physiology, his analysis of the relations among the sense organs, nerves, and the brain is still taught today. In psychology, he discovered conditioned reflexes and investigated the role of the emotions in human behavior. Descartes said there was no point in trying to refute Aristotelian Scholasticism; rather, he would simply show a better way. Some 350 years after his death, our twenty-first-century world - from mind-body dualism to heart pumps, from pop psychology to personal computers - is thoroughly Cartesian. Nothing in the modern world would alarm or surprise him were he alive today. Seller Inventory # 3041

Synopsis:

Rene Descartes was a highly influential philosopher, mathematician, and scientist and is regarded as the Father of modern philosophy and mathematics. This is the biography of Descartes, and it describes the life of Descartes, in the flesh and blood, rather than a technical analysis of his philosophical, scientific, and mathematical ideas.

About the Author:

Richard Watson was a professor of philosophy and a pre-eminent Cartesian scholar.

Bibliographic Details

Title: Cogito, Ergo Sum: The Life of Rene Descartes
Publisher: David R. Godine, Publisher, Boston
Publication Date: 2002
Binding: Hardcover
Dust Jacket Condition: Dust Jacket Included
Edition: First Edition, First Printing.