Descartes: A Biography

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

Notes to Pages– 

.The title of this edition was:Specimina Philosophiae, seu Dissertatio de Methodo

recte regendae rationis, & veritatis in scientia investigandae; Dioptrice, et Meteora.A

Latin version of theGeometrywas prepared by Van Schooten and published by

Jan Maire in.

.Those interested in the history of science or mathematics are an obvious excep-

tion. There is an English translation available in Descartes (). However, the

translator has inexplicably changed the order in which the essays appeared in the

first edition and in the standard editions of this book by putting theGeometryin

second place.

.The first edition of the book included two separately paginated parts. The essays

werepages long, while theDiscoursewas onlypages in length. Despite this,

the essays are often described as appendices to theDiscourse on Method. See, for

example, Gleik (),, where Descartes’Geometryis characterized as ‘a small

and rambling text, the third and last appendix to hisDiscours de la M ́ethode’.

.Plemp (). Plemp’s reliance on traditional medicine is reflected in his very

extensive library. See Tricot-Royer (). For his preference for Galen over Vitello

or Kepler, see Book II, Chapter.

.If the sticks are bent by an angleaand the distance between the two hands isd,

then the distance between the blind man and the object isdsin (−a)/.

.Descartes to Ferrier,October(i.) andNovember(i.).

.This sentiment is repeated in the final sentence of theMeteors:‘Ihope that those

who have understood everything in this treatise will see nothing in the clouds, in

future, of which they will not be able easily to understand the cause nor anything

that provides them with a subject for admiration’ (vi.).

.There is also a reference to ‘another treatise’ (the unpublishedWorld)inwhich he

has explained comets (vi.).

.See p., this volume.

.He had also written his earlier unpublishedWorldin French. Writing to Father

Vatier,February, Descartes excused his failure to discuss God’s existence

adequately in theDiscourseby claiming that ‘it did not seem appropriate to include

these thoughts in a book in which even women could understand something and,

atthe same time, the most subtle minds would also find things to occupy their

minds’ (i.).

.Descartes to Deriennes, February,(i.).

.Ihaveborrowed from the invaluable work of Bos (), and have consulted

Costabel ().

.The title of the first chapter in Book I reads: ‘Problems that can be constructed

without using anything other than circles and straight lines’ (vi.).

.See p., this volume.

.See Balzac to Descartes,March(i.); Descartes to Mersenne,April

(i.) andNovember(i.).

Chapter

.Compare James Joyce,Finnegans Wake:‘Ahundred cares, a tithe of troubles and

is there one who understands me?’