Descartes: A Biography

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Descartes and Princess Elizabeth 

established in his childhood any basis for an enduring, emotionally strong

relationship.

In complete contrast, once Descartes reached maturity, he lived a rather

nomadic life in which he had no genuine women friends.It is true, of

course, that he had conceived a daughter, Francine, with the maidservant

of his landlord in Amsterdam in.Hemight have developed an appro-

priately paternal affection toward his daughter had she lived long enough

to reach adulthood. But that was not to be. His concern for Helena Jans

was evident, as late as,inhis financial support for her marriage – to

someone else.He had briefly become acquainted with Anna Maria van

Schurman, one of the most learned women at the time in the United

Provinces, but he was very disparaging about her intellectual interests

and, especially after, her alliance with Voetius. Finally, in,

Princess Elizabeth of Bohemia, who enjoyed political asylum from her

native Bohemia in The Hague, read theMeditationsand initiated an intel-

lectual correspondence with Descartes that resulted in some of the most

revealing replies on his part to her searching questions.

This lack of genuine women friends would not require any special

explanation if the French philosopher were simply a misanthrope, as

Schoock had suggested. However, Descartes’ reluctance about friendships

and social contacts was not so general or undiscriminating that it would

merit that description. He was certainly reclusive, and he was consistently

secretive about where he lived. He frequently changed residence, often

moving from one town to another rather than renting new accommoda-

tions in the same town or city. Nonetheless, throughout most of his adult

life, he cultivated relatively intense and exclusive friendships with a small

number of male friends, beginning with Beeckman. Balzac was among

the first to show a genuine affection for Descartes, while Baillet described

Villebressieu as a ‘special friend’.Reneri was later to merit the same sta-

tus, when he lived ‘in great intimacy’ with the philosopher in Deventer,

and Regius was temporarily classified as a friend at a distance before his

public falling out with Descartes.In fact, the impression one gets from

his correspondence is that Descartes cultivated special friendships with a

small number of loyal supporters who shared his philosophical views. He

also acquired a wider circle of correspondents who were instrumental in

various ways in making his life’s work successful.

The most obvious person among the latter was Marin Mersenne.

Despite a few occasions when his patience with Mersenne was exhausted