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Zusatztext “Aczel catapults the reader into a world where burgeoning intellect was cloaked in intrigue.” — The Washington Post Book World “Aczel joins the ranks of Roger Penrose! Stephen Pinker! Francis Crick! and others.”—Keith Devlin! author of Goodbye! Descartes: The End of Logic and the Search for a New Cosmology of the Mind “Splendid . . . first-rate.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review) “Aczel reveals the mystery behind . . . one of the Western world’s greatest minds . . . [ Descartes’s Secret Notebook ] reads like a mystery novel as well as a biography.” — Science News Informationen zum Autor Amir D. Aczel Klappentext René Descartes (1596-1650) is one of the towering and central figures in Western philosophy and mathematics. His apothegm "Cogito, ergo sum” marked the birth of the mind-body problem, while his creation of so-called Cartesian coordinates have made our physical and intellectual conquest of physical space possible. But Descartes had a mysterious and mystical side, as well. Almost certainly a member of the occult brotherhood of the Rosicrucians, he kept a secret notebook, now lost, most of which was written in code. After Descartes's death, Gottfried Leibniz, inventor of calculus and one of the greatest mathematicians in history, moved to Paris in search of this notebook—and eventually found it in the possession of Claude Clerselier, a friend of Descartes. Leibniz called on Clerselier and was allowed to copy only a couple of pages—which, though written in code, he amazingly deciphered there on the spot. Leibniz's hastily scribbled notes are all we have today of Descartes's notebook, which has disappeared. Why did Descartes keep a secret notebook, and what were its contents? The answers to these questions lead Amir Aczel and the reader on an exciting, swashbuckling journey, and offer a fascinating look at one of the great figures of Western culture.Chapter 1 The Gardens of Touraine JUST BEFORE RENE DESCARTES WAS born, on March 31, 1596, his mother, Jeanne Brochard, took an action that may well have altered the course of Western civilization. For like Julius Caesar crossing the Rubicon in 49 B.C., Jeanne Brochard crossed the Creuse River, which lay between her family home, in the region of Poitou, and the small town of La Haye, which lies in the region of Touraine, in western central France. The Descartes family had originated in Poitou and had lived for many years in the town of Chatellerault, about twenty-five kilometers south of La Haye. Descartes' parents, Joachim Descartes and Jeanne Brochard, who were married on January 15, 1589, owned a stately mansion in the center of Chatellerault, at 126 rue Carrou-Bernard (today's rue Bourbon). Joachim Descartes was the councillor of the Parliament of Brittany, and this important job kept him away in distant Rennes. Jeanne needed her mother's help in birthing the baby, and this is why she traveled north and across the river to Touraine to give birth to René Descartes in her mother's house in La Haye. Sometime later, once she had recovered, she returned to Chatellerault. Despite this accident of birth, throughout his life, Rene's friends would often call him Rene le Poitevin --Rene of Poitou. The regions of Poitou and Touraine include pastoral farmlands that have been cultivated since antiquity. There are low hills, many of which are forested, and rich flatlands, irrigated by rivers that cut through this fertile land. Cows and sheep graze here, and many kinds of crops are grown. La Haye is a small town of stone houses with gray roofs. At the time of Descartes, the population of the town numbered about 750 people. Chatellerault is a larger, more genteel town than La Haye, with wide avenues and an elegant city square, and it serves as the hub of rural life in the region. Because this part of France is so fertile...
