Descartes: A Biography

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Retreat and Defence (–) 

when Father Vatier wrote that he was happy that others had not published

similar ideas before Descartes, he replied: ‘that is something that I have

never feared. Apart from the fact that it is unimportant whether I am the

first or the last to have written the things that I have written, on condition

that they are true....’ (i.)Insum, he constantly requested comments

onhis work, claimed to welcome them in proportion to their strength and

efficacy, and described himself as a docile author who was receptive to

criticism.

The reality was rather different. Descartes conceded nothing to any

objection made by any of his correspondents. There is no example, in

response to comments on theEssays, where he agreed to correct his views

or to amend his theories. In fact, he wrote dismissively that the strongest

objections raised against him were no better than the weakest of those he

had thought of himself, and that the objections of others served merely

to confirm his original opinions.Rather than welcoming criticisms, he

deeply resented them and did not readily forget or forgive their authors.

Forexample, six years after receiving objections from the Louvain profes-

sor Plemp, Descartes was still complaining that ‘in bad faith, he [Plemp]

published my replies in a mutilated and distorted form.’

However, that does not mean that the detailed replies he wrote were mere

stone-walling. In the course of answering critics, Descartes was forced to

address one of the central issues in any account of knowledge, namely, how

to provide evidence to support one’s views and what degree of certainty

may be claimed on their behalf. There is nothing to suggest that Descartes

had worked out this strategy in advance. He seems to have been genuinely

groping for an answer to an extremely difficult question, and his response

is understandably unsatisfactory from the perspective of readers today.

One constant feature of his reply was to situate explanations of specific

phenomena in the wider context of a full development of his natural phi-

losophy, and thus to defer replying adequately to criticism until he had an

opportunity to publishThe World.Hecould therefore acknowledge the

weakness of the published version of his theories and, at the same time,

claim that he had a much stronger but as yet unpublished defence available.

A Network of Beliefs

Huygens was among those who continued to ask Descartes to releaseThe

Worldfrom the embargo under which it lay concealed. Descartes replied

(October) that ‘I have hidden myWorldalongdistance from here’