Descartes: A Biography by Desmond M. Clarke

ISBN: 9780521823012

Cambridge University Press | 06 March 2006

Hardcover | 520 pages

1ST US edition

Although René Descartes is best remembered for writing “I think, therefore I am,” his unique contribution to the history of ideas was his effort to construct a philosophy that would be sympathetic to the new sciences emerging in the seventeenth century. In four major publications, he developed a philosophical system that accommodated these new scientific ideas, earning criticism from both Catholic and Calvinist theologians who relied on traditional scholastic philosophy. His contemporaries even claimed that his arguments for the existence of God were so unconvincing that he must have been a hidden atheist, while his skepticism was seen as encouraging libertinism. Despite dying in relative obscurity, Descartes became one of the most influential philosophers of the seventeenth century. This comprehensive biography by Desmond M. Clarke traces the full range of his intellectual development across philosophy, theology, and science, offering a detailed account of his life and enduring impact.