Descartes: A Biography

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The Principles of Philosophy() 

Descartes is said to have endorsed this sentiment, and to have assured his

uninvited guest ‘that he had already thought about this question, that he

did not dare to promise to make human beings immortal, but that it was

well within his power to extend the span of his life to equal that of the

patriarchs’.

Digby returned to London from Paris in,tosupport Charles I in

the hope of winning tolerance for Catholics, and was arrested twice and

imprisoned – once for only a week, and the second time for almost a year

(Novemberto July). Evidently, Mersenne was well informed

about these developments, since Descartes expressed his regret about

Digby’s imprisonment and, subsequently, his delight on hearing of his

release.During his second period in captivity, Digby drafted the book

that eventually appeared, in, as:Two Treatises in the one of which, The

Nature of Bodies; in the other, the Nature of Mans Soule: is looked into: in way

of discovery, of the Immortality of Reasonable Soules.Digby was evidently

supportive of the objectives of theMeditations, namely, to establish the

immortality of the soul and the existence of God. Not surprisingly, then,

there were obvious points of agreement between Digby’sTwo Treatises

and Descartes’ metaphysics. Unfortunately, Descartes was unable to read

English, and although Princess Elizabeth suggested having some chapters

translated for him by her chaplain, Descartes never had an opportunity to

read Digby’s book. It appeared in a Latin translation only the year after

Descartes’ death.

However, one of Digby’s companions in Paris, an English priest named

Thomas White, published a book that Descartes was able to read in Latin,

under the titleThree Dialogues about the World().Mersenne sent two

copies of this book to Huygens, one of which was forwarded to Descartes.

In contrast with his usual disdain for other authors, Descartes took a

whole day to read White’sThree Dialogues.Hereported to Huygens that,

although there were some sections in White’s book where he acknowl-

edged the pre-eminence of Descartes, there was little he could learn from

it.White addressed a number of philosophical questions that coincided

with issues that appeared later in Descartes’Principles, such as the com-

patibility of human liberty with divine Providence.In contrast with

Descartes, however, his attitude toward astronomical theories was scep-

tical. He argued that the relative rarity of the evidence available makes it

difficult to draw reliable conclusions in astronomy, that those who exceed

the scope of the evidence are constructing dogmas, and that we have no