Descartes - (Renaissance Lives) by Steven Nadler (Hardcover)

About the Book

"Often called 'the father of modern philosophy', Rene Descartes' contributions to philosophy, mathematics and natural science set the intellectual agenda for the seventeenth century. In this biography and assessment of his works, based on the most up-to-date research, Steven Nadler follows Descartes from his early years and education in France to the Dutch Republic, where he lived most of his adult life, to his final months as tutor to Queen Christina of Sweden. Nadler shows how Descartes' 'renewal' of philosophy involved a transformation in both the way in which philosophy is done and the fundamental understanding of the cosmos, the natural world and human nature. His work was a springboard for many of the metaphysical and epistemological problems that continue to engage philosophers today"--

Book Synopsis

A critical biography of René Descartes, whose first principle ("I think therefore I am.") reshaped modern philosophy.

Often called the father of modern philosophy, René Descartes set the intellectual agenda for seventeenth-century philosophy, mathematics, natural science, and beyond. In this critical biography, based on compelling new research, Steven Nadler follows Descartes from his early education in France to the Dutch Republic, where he lived most of his adult life, to his final months as a tutor to Queen Christina of Sweden. Along the way, Nadler shows how Descartes renewed philosophy by transforming fundamental assumptions about the cosmos, natural world, and human nature as well as how his work continues to generate new insights into many of the metaphysical and epistemological problems that engage philosophers today.

Review Quotes

"By firmly embedding his descriptions of Descartes' achievements in their social, political, and sometimes personal settings, Nadler gives the reader a more fully human Descartes than is found in most introductions to his philosophy. The inclusion of several portraits of Descartes and his correspondents--most in color--enhance Nadler's humanizing approach."-- "Choice"

"Steven Nadler's outstanding biography achieves a fine balance of life, ideas and context, allowing Descartes's philosophy to emerge from its eclectic seventeenth-century milieu in all its dazzling originality and strangeness. Lucid, compelling and unfailingly judicious, this is a marvelous new study of a magisterial modern thinker."--Clare Carlisle Tresch, King's College London

About the Author

Steven Nadler is Vilas Research Professor and the William H. Hay II Professor of Philosophy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and his books include Think Least of Death: Spinoza on How to Live and How to Die.