The Young Descartes: Nobility, Rumor, and War

Cook, a Brown University professor specializing in the history of medicine, shifts focus to examine the early years of French philosopher René Descartes (1596–1650) in an intriguing but overly speculative biography. Cook’s account, which for the most part eschews philosophy and makes liberal use of Adrien Baillet’s 1691 Descartes biography, presents the young Descartes as a mysterious and peripatetic soldier of fortune, possibly an associate of the scandalous libertine freethinkers, who was peripherally involved in the events that defined early-17th-century France. As a corollary to Descartes’s story, Cook provides a detailed primer on the complicated history of the period, which featured shifting and dangerous court rivalries; the brutal consolidation of power by the infamous Cardinal Richelieu, a probable enemy of Descartes’s; and the clash between French Protestants and the dominant Catholics. Cook adds a layer of intrigue to Descartes’s documented wanderlust by speculating on whether Descartes may have been acting as a secret courier or spy for various factions as he moved among Europe’s trouble spots—though he ultimately finds the evidence inconclusive. In recognition of the intricate politics that Descartes navigated, Cook provides a useful appendix that connects important dates in Descartes’s life with major historic events in France and elsewhere in Europe. Cook’s mysterious Descartes titillates, but his inability to prove many of his suppositions leaves his picture of the famous philosopher hazy and uncertain. (Mar.)