Descartes: A Biography

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 Descartes: A Biography

since about[at the age of forty-nine], he was unwilling to tolerate any kind of

transport apart from a carriage or a boat.

These initial signs of ageing, and Descartes’ awareness of the reduced

options that he would enjoy in the future, helped turn his mind once more

toward the possibility of visiting France in.

Although this plan was initially somewhat vague, and was possibly

inspired by loneliness and by memories of the positive reception he had

received in both Paris and Brittany in;itsoon evolved into think-

ing about returning to France permanently. For example, he wrote to

Elizabeth in Marchthat he did not plan to travel south for another

two months, and that he would return before winter.By May, however,

he was considering leaving the United Provinces for good. The decisive

factor in this change of mind, after living for almost two decades in the

United Provinces, was the public attack on his metaphysics by theologians

at Leiden, and the implicit threat that they might use their political power

to bring him before what seemed to Descartes like a Dutch Calvinist ver-

sion of the Spanish Inquisition. This was enough to override completely

the reasons he had consistently given, since,for his self-imposed exile.

‘A sregards the peace that I came here to seek, I anticipate that I shall not

be able in future to enjoy it as much as I would have wished because, not

only have I not yet received all the redress that I should have had for the

injuries I suffered from Utrecht, but I see that they have attracted further

trouble. There is a group of scholastic theologians there, who seem to have

conspired to oppress me with slanders’ (v.–). Descartes had had the

experience of a long drawn-out struggle with Voetius in Utrecht. In his

view, this had not yet been resolved satisfactorily, and he was anxious to

avoid a recurrence in Leiden. If he failed to get satisfaction, therefore,

he would be ‘forced to retire completely from these Provinces. However,

since everything happens rather slowly here, I am certain that more than

ayear will elapse before that occurs’ (v.).

Before getting involved in that controversy, however, Descartes wrote

a lengthy letter on the nature of love for Chanut that attracted the interest

and respect of Queen Christina of Sweden and, indirectly, led to his death

in Stockholm three years later.

An Essay on Love

Chanut had told Descartes almost as soon as they first met inthat

he was not very interested in natural philosophy and that it would be