Descartes: A Biography

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 Descartes: A Biography

Once the students had a firm grasp of the two classical languages, they

concentrated in second class on the humanities and in first class on rhetoric.

The devaluation of the vernacular changed only with the founding of the

Academie Franc ̧aise in ́ , although many authors continued to publish

in Latin well into the seventeenth century.

Apart from learning Latin and Greek grammar, students in the ele-

mentary classes were trained in rhetoric, and in reading and writing

poetry in the classical languages.The Art of Rhetoric(), by the Jesuit

Cyprian Soarez, was one of the standard texts used for rhetoric. It speci-

fied the function of rhetoric – to teach people how to speak effectively in

order to persuade listeners – and it provided students with an introduc-

tory course in five parts: discovery, disposition, elocution, memorization,

and pronunciation.The contents were drawn primarily from Aristotle,

Cicero, and Quintilian, a selection that was subsequently reflected in the

‘Rules for Professors of Rhetoric’ in theSyllabus: ‘Only Cicero may be

employed for orations, while Quintilian and Aristotle as well as Cicero

may be employed for fundamental precepts.’However, it is clear from

the other authors recommended, and from independent evidence about

their readings, that the students at La Fl`eche were exposed to a relatively

wide range of classical authors, including Plato, Demosthenes, Thycid-

edes, Hesiod, Pindar, Livy, Ovid, Virgil, and some Christian authors such

as Basil and Chrysostom. Those in the Higher Grammar classes were

encouraged to read the more accessible books by Cicero, such as hisOn

FriendshipandOn Old Age.

If Descartes studied Quintilian carefully, as he was expected to have

done, he would have learned from one of its classical exponents those

features of rhetoric that were especially important for lawyers. The objec-

tive of any rhetorical presentation was to convince one’s hearers. Hence

the need, according to Quintilian, for clarity and distinctness – two con-

cepts that were to figure subsequently as key features of the Cartesian

account of evidence.When constructing arguments, a persuasive lawyer

was expected to engage with the emotional content of his case and to try to

stimulate an appropriate emotional response in the listeners. ‘The prime

essential for stirring the emotions of others is, in my opinion, first to feel

those emotions oneself.’Thirdly, effective arguments should be based

oncertainty. ‘It has generally been laid down that, in order to be effective,

an argument must be based on certainty; for it is obviously impossible

to prove what is doubtful by what is no less doubtful.’These themes,