Descartes: A Biography

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 Descartes: A Biography

The ScientificEssays()

The standard practice among scholars in the seventeenth century was

to write in Latin, since that was the normal language for instruction at

universities, and thus to make their publications accessible to academic

readers all over Europe. Descartes, however, decided to publish his first

book in French, and he explained the choice as follows:

If I have written in French, which is my native language, rather than in Latin, which

is the language of my teachers, it is because I hope that those who use only their pure

natural reason will be better judges of my views than those who trust only ancient

books. Those who combine common sense and study...will not be so partial to Latin,

Iamsure, that they refuse to listen to my arguments because I explain them in the

vernacular. (vi.–)

Evidently, some of his local readers at universities in the United Provinces

did not read French as easily as Latin. This problem was remedied seven

years later, when Descartes arranged for a Latin translation of the book

(without theGeometry)tobepublished by Elzevier.In the short term, he

preferred to write in French not only because he found it easier to do so, but

also because he wished to dissociate his work from the scholastic tradition

that it criticizes, and because he trusted readers (including women) who

had not been contaminated by school learning more than academic readers.

The relative openness of women to new ideas later became one of the

central features of Cartesian arguments in favour of women’s education.

Despite the author’s plans, Descartes’ three essays – on dioptrics, mete-

orology, and geometry – are rarely read today.By contrast, theDiscourse

on Methodhas been adopted as part of the canon in Western philosophy,

as an independent text from which modern readers are expected to distill

its author’s seminal contribution to modern thought. This reversal began

even with Descartes’ most sympathetic reader, Constantijn Huygens. He

wrote in March, prior to publication: ‘In passing, I devoured your

Discourse on Method, which is truly the most digested piece, the most ripe,

and as the Italians seem to express themselves vividly, thepiu saporita[the

most flavourful] that I have ever seen. If you need to know my opinion, I

assure you that it satisfied me extremely well’ (i.). The relative acces-

sibility of theDiscourse, and the fact that the essays have lapsed with the

passing of time into obsolete texts in the history of science, has even had

the remarkable effect of transforming retrospectively the original core

of the book into what are often referred to as its ‘appendices’. Yet it is