Descartes: A Biography

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ALawyer’s Education 

byanother Jesuit, Pierre Bourdin. Apart from Jean Franc ̧ois (–),

already mentioned as teaching mathematics, Descartes also knew Franc ̧ois

Du Ban as a contemporary in theology, and he was taught by Denis Petau

(–), who was professor of rhetoric before moving to Paris to teach

theology; Pierre Musson (–), whose dramatic compositions had

been produced at the college during Descartes’ school days, in–;

and Franc ̧ois Fournet (–), who taught philosophy fromto

,asdid Louis Lallemant (–) and Nicolas Caussin (–

). Caussin subsequently became famous as the author ofThe Holy

Court() and other partisan writings.

There are no reliable records of Descartes’ studies at school. Many years

later, Nicholas-Joseph Poisson – who by then had become an Oratorian

priest and a loyal supporter of Cartesian philosophy – reports meeting a

friend in Saumur, in, who claimed to have attended La Fleche at the`

same time as Descartes. There is probably a certain amount of retrospective

projection in the following description of the philosophical skills of the

schoolboy Rene: ́

When there was a question of proposing an argument or disputation, initially he asked

anumber of times about the definition of terms. He then asked how various principles

that were accepted in the schools should be understood. Then he asked if one agreed

with various known truths, about which he wanted to have agreement, and from this he

set up a simple argument from which it was very difficult to budge him subsequently.

This may easily have been the standard format for a disputation, rather

than an anticipation of the demand for clear and distinct ideas that later

characterized the most famous alumnus of La Fleche.`

The daily routine of studies was relieved slightly by dramatic produc-

tions that were composed by the professors, and evidently by various

games that children commonly played in the early seventeenth century.

TheSyllabusincluded specific guidance for the ‘tragedies and comedies’

that were to be performed. They had to be done in Latin; they could not

deviate from anything that was not ‘sacred and pious’; and they could not

include any ‘feminine role or feminine attire.’Before attending school,

many children learned to ride a horse, to play music (for example, the

lute or violin), to dance, and to play various board games or games that

involved gambling.They obviously did not renounce all these skills at

the schoolhouse gate. Students at La Fleche enjoyed various ball games,`

including tennis and volley-ball, and they also engaged in various forms