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De Botten Van Descartes: Een Beknopte Geschiedenis Van Het Conflict Tussen Geloof En Rede (2008)

by Russell Shorto(Favorite Author)

3.66 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

9045849933 (ISBN13: 9789045849935)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Uitgeverij Mouria

review 1: Rene Descartes is credited as the first modern philosopher. Most of us have heard his seminal statement, “Cogito ergo sum”; I think therefore I am. For me it was a sidebar in a high school algebra text. Beyond that I really didn’t know that much about him until I read Russell Shorto’s incredible and fascinating book, Descartes Bones: A Skeletal History of the Conflict Between Faith and Reason.Descarte’s “Discourse” – the first work of modern philosophy – helped give birth to the Enlightenment in the century following his death. Modern science and modern democracy, for which both the United States and France are forever in his debt (the United States owes a debt of gratitude to the Dutch as well). It was Descartes that paved the way for us to begin ques... moretioning all of our assumptions, although he was always mindful of what the church had done to Galileo. He was always a little befuddled as to the charges leveled against his method and for safety sake took refuge in the tolerant Dutch state of the 17th century.I’ve always associated Descartes with math, but his principal interest was in the area of medicine and how to increase health and longevity. He had hoped that his methods would lead him to the necessary understanding and many in his life consulted him on these matters. He had though that by treating the body as a machine to be examined and studied, freeing medicine from the ideas of Aristotle and the abysmal practice of phlebotomy, that we might learn the secrets of long life.It is of no surprise that Descartes came under attack by religious authority. He was accused of atheism, which befuddled him as he was a devout Catholic. Decartes believed in god and believed that his method did not invalidate faith. He thought to leave the treatment of the soul to the theologians and the natural world to the scientists. However, the assertion that his method would lead to atheism is not completely unfounded. Russell Shorto is a captivating storyteller turning a history of science and philosophy into something of a detective story as he describes the role that the philosopher’s remains played in the propagation of his method and its immense paradigm altering impact on human society and our quest to know universe and our place in it.Lovers of reason, science and philosophy are recommended to put this book on their short list for the year. Shorto’s prose style is beautiful and to the point at the same time. Through an understanding of Descartes life work and the influence he had on his time and the enlightenment era the reader is able to reframe our present society for a clearer understanding.
review 2: A very interesting account of the topic and a very good look into the philosophy of Descartes. By the same author who wrote the recently-read book AMSTERDAM. With those two tomes, one now has a very good grasp on Cartesian matters! From Amazon: A New York Times Notable BookSixteen years after René Descartes' death in Stockholm in 1650, a pious French ambassador exhumed the remains of the controversial philosopher to transport them back to Paris. Thus began a 350-year saga that saw Descartes' bones traverse a continent, passing between kings, philosophers, poets, and painters. But as Russell Shorto shows in this deeply engaging book, Descartes' bones also played a role in some of the most momentous episodes in history, which are also part of the philosopher's metaphorical remains: the birth of science, the rise of democracy, and the earliest debates between reason and faith. Descartes' Bones is a flesh-and-blood story about the battle between religion and rationalism that rages to this day. less

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