Descartes' Bones
Author: Russell Shorto
ISBN: 9780349140186
Publisher: Little Brown
Year first published: 13 May 2014
Pages: 336
Format: Paperback / softback
Sixteen years after Ren Descartes' death in Stockholm in 1650, a pious French ambassador exhumed the remains of the controversial philosopher to transport them back to Paris. Thus began a 350-year saga that saw Descartes' bones traverse a continent, passing between kings, philosophers, poets, and painters. But as Russell Shorto shows in this deeply engaging book, Descartes' bones also played a role in some of the most momentous episodes in history, which are also part of the philosopher's metaphorical remains: the birth of science, the rise of democracy, and the earliest debates between reason and faith.Descartes' Bones is a flesh-and-blood story about the battle between religion and rationalism that rages to this day.
ISBN: 9780349140186
Publisher: Little Brown
Year first published: 13 May 2014
Pages: 336
Format: Paperback / softback
Sixteen years after Ren Descartes' death in Stockholm in 1650, a pious French ambassador exhumed the remains of the controversial philosopher to transport them back to Paris. Thus began a 350-year saga that saw Descartes' bones traverse a continent, passing between kings, philosophers, poets, and painters. But as Russell Shorto shows in this deeply engaging book, Descartes' bones also played a role in some of the most momentous episodes in history, which are also part of the philosopher's metaphorical remains: the birth of science, the rise of democracy, and the earliest debates between reason and faith.Descartes' Bones is a flesh-and-blood story about the battle between religion and rationalism that rages to this day.
