Descartes: A Biography

c CUNYB/Clarke     December, :

Thoughts of Retirement 

complete them.However, there were simultaneous intimations of a final

departure from Holland, especially in his parting shot to those in Utrecht

who had accused him of heresy and who implied that he was persona non

gratainaCalvinist country.Accordingly, Descartes wrote to Chanut (

February) that he planned ‘to go to Paris at the beginning of next

month [March]’ (v.).

In fact, he remained in Egmond until early May. During this rela-

tively calm period of his life, he was visited by a young theology student

who recorded Descartes’ detailed replies to questions about Cartesian

philosophy.

Conversation with Burman

Frans Burman (–) had matriculated as a theology student at

Leiden in, and he was still studying there during the controver-

sies of–, when the Leiden theologians targeted Descartes and his

philosophical sympathizers. As a pupil of theStatencollegein which Revius

was dean, Burman had an opportunity to participate in disputations in

which Heereboord and his critics, Revius and Spanheim, presided.He

must have been aware, therefore, of the extent to which Descartes’ views

were the source of constant wrangling at Leiden University and the sub-

ject of official inquiries by the university curators. In contrast with other

students, however, Burman took the initiative to travel north to Egmond

and asked Descartes to clarify many of the central claims of his philosophy.

He also came well prepared. He seems to have brought with him copies

of four of Descartes’ publications, with eighty-two passages marked for

ease of reference. Most of Burman’s queries were taken from the second

edition of theMeditations(including the objections and replies). How-

ever, he also marked some passages from thePrinciples of Philosophy, the

Discourse on Method, and, with obvious relevance to the recent controversy

at Leiden, Descartes’ reply to Regius, theComments on a Certain Manifesto.

With these books in hand, all published in Latin in the United Provinces,

Burman met Descartes onApril, and joined him for dinner.

Burman probably pointed out the passages that he had marked in

advance and asked their author to clarify each one in turn. In some cases,

when Burman was dissatisfied with the reply, he followed his initial query

with a supplementary question. The young student took notes in the course

of the conversation and brought them to Amsterdam where, onApril,