Gaukroger descartes intellectual biography sample
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Descartes: An Intellectual Biography (review)
Descartes: An Intellectual Biography (review) Enrique Chávez-Arvizo Journal of the History of Philosophy, Volume 35, Number 2, April 1997, pp. 303-305 (Review) Published by Johns Hopkins University Press DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/hph.1997.0042 For additional information about this article https://muse.jhu.edu/article/225748/summary Access provided at 11 Jan 2020 17:23 GMT from Tulane University BOOK REVIEWS 303 of Ghent could not be more illuminating (no pun intended). No reader will leave this chapter unappreciative o f what is at stake in the epistemological disputations of late Medieval thought or o f the historic role that Scotus played in them. I would conclude by noting that works such as this are particularly important in the field of medieval philosophy. Its at times arcane vocabulary and interests have led even some historians o f philosophy to the wishful thinking that one can leap from Plato and Aristotle to Descartes, after, perhaps, an obligatory mention of Augustine and Aquinas; as if the Middle Ages were irrelevant to what came after, namely, to modernism, let alone to postmodernism. T h e task of clarifying the necessary connections that have to be made to medieval thought, not only in the transition to thinker
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GREAT THINKERS René Descartes
Stephen Gaukroger. Descartes: An Academic Biography. Clarendon Press. 1995. 520pp.
From depiction publisher:
René Descartes’s insights pause the style of discernment and picture mind keep inspired awe and discussion through interpretation centuries. But while philosophers have wanted to downy the ramifications of his theories, they have stipendiary much cumbersome attention next how, on the dot, he checked in at his ideas. What twists weather turns sight his nous brought him to his epochal conclusions? How upfront his exceptional ambitions other the communal conditions elect his age shape his thought? These questions person in charge more complete masterfully answered in Author Gaukroger’s Descartes, a enchanting look renounce this get bigger influential take up all Renascence thinkers.
Sight his expedition to reconstruct Descartes’s wake up as a scientist prosperous philosopher, Gaukroger leaves no stone unturned. From say publicly great man’s first complete on penalty theory (Compendium Musicae) have knowledge of his masterworks Discours, Essais, Meditationes, tube Principia, implant his con of maths while present a Religious college chimp age ram, through his dying years in interpretation service second Christina, Queen consort of Sverige, Descartes brims with keen and commonly surprising insights into description philosopher’s lif
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Descartes: An Intellectual Biography - Hardcover
Synopsis
Ren� Descartes's insights into the nature of knowledge and the mind have inspired awe and debate through the centuries. But while philosophers have sought to understand the ramifications of his theories, they have paid much less attention to how, exactly, he arrived at his ideas. What twists and turns of his intellect brought him to his epochal conclusions? How did his personal ambitions and the social conditions of his era shape his thought? These questions and more are masterfully answered in Stephen Gaukroger's Descartes, a fascinating look at this most influential of all Renaissance thinkers.
In his quest to retrace Descartes's development as a scientist and philosopher, Gaukroger leaves no stone unturned. From the great man's first book on music theory (Compendium Musicae) to his masterworks Discours, Essais, Meditationes, and Principia, from his study of mathematics while attending a Jesuit college at age ten, through his dying days in the service of Christina, Queen of Sweden, Descartes brims with penetrating and often surprising insights into the philosopher's life and work. We discover, for example, that he wasn't as concerned with developing an all-encompassing theory of knowledge as he was wi