c CUNYB/Clarke December, :
Descartes: A Biographybutthe underlying content was similar to what he wrote to others. To the
Jesuit he wrote: ‘My only objective is to instruct myself, and those who
reproach me for some error [faute] will always please me more than those
who praise me’ (i.). The French term used in all these requests was
faute, which could be translated as ‘mistake’ (with connotations of a simple
slip that could easily be corrected), or as ‘defect’ or ‘error’ (words that have
implications of something being seriously wrong). Descartes had written
in a similar vein to Mersenne, in spring:Iamvery grateful for the objection that you sent me and I beseech you to continue
to tell me about any others that you hear, in a manner that is as much as possi-
bleunfavourable to me. That will please me as much as you possibly can, for I am
not accustomed to complaining while my wounds are being treated, and those
who are kind enough to instruct me and to teach me something will always find
me docile. (i.)There is nothing unusual in the style of this open invitation to Mersenne.
The Minim friar was his most loyal correspondent, on whom he relied
forcontinued representation in Paris and for the indirect communication
with many other scholars that he provided. However, Descartes wrote to
other selected correspondents in a similar way. He invited Balzac to tell
him about ‘the errors [fautes]’ that he noticed in the essays (i.). He
encouraged Plemp to send ‘objections’ to his account of blood circulation
and to request, on his behalf, the strongest possible objections from an
unnamed Jesuit reader (i.). Finally, he asked Father Antoine Vatier
to encourage others to forward ‘all the difficulties that are encountered in
what I have tried to explain’, since that would provide the shortest route to
‘discovering all the errors [erreurs]ortruths in my writings’ (i.,).
This all sounds open-minded and genuinely impartial about the possible
merits of the theories proposed in thebook. Together with these
requests for objections and corrections, Descartes provides a self-serving
description of his attitude to criticism. Not only is he ‘docile’, as he claimed
above, but he is reluctant to speak in his own defence. ‘I am not comfortable
if I am obliged to speak favourably about myself ’ (i.). While offering
a spirited reply to Froidmont’s objections, he tells Plemp that he had to
overcome his natural reluctance to engage in controversy in order to reply
adequately to the problems raised. ‘To some extent I forced my own nature,
which in other circumstances is averse to all controversy’ (i.).He
even claims not to care whether others have anticipated his discoveries,
thereby implying that he would not get involved in priority disputes. Thus,