In the New Yorker Anthony Gottlieb reviews two new biographies of Descartes--Desmond Clark's Descartes: A Biography, which argues that Descartes philosophy is best understood in the context of his scientific work, and A. C. Grayling's Descartes: The Life and Times of a Genius, where it is suggested that Descarts spent a good deal of his life as a spy. I'm rather sympathetic to the first suggestion and a bit skeptical about the latter; but I haven't read either work yet.

It isn?t easy to see Descartes?s work the way he saw it?the relationship between science and philosophy has changed too much for that. Despite his current reputation, the man himself seems to have been less interested in metaphysics than in applying algebra to geometry and delving into the innards of cows. He turned to philosophy relatively late in life, and out of fear that the Catholic Church would condemn his science. He would have been surprised at how he is remembered.

Read more at The New Yorker: THINK AGAIN

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