Is God a Mathematician_ - Mario Livio [124]
whose influence on Descartes’ physico-mathematical: See Gaukroger 2002 for a description.
Descartes experienced three dreams: Most biographers locate this night as occurring in the town of Ulm in the state of Neuburg. Descartes himself told the story in a notebook that was seen by his early biographers. Only a few transcribed passages have survived. Descartes repeated impressions of these dreams in his Discourse (Adam and Tannery 1897–1910). A quite comprehensive description of the dreams and their possible interpretations can be found in Grayling 2005 and Cole 1992.
as Descartes wrote to his friend: Letter to Pierre Chanut, France’s ambassador to Sweden, who was also an amateur philosopher. Adam and Tannery 1897–1910.
Descartes was buried in Sweden: Originally he was buried in the cemetery of Nord-Malmoe. When the remains were transferred to France, there were rumors (Adam and Tannery 1897–1910) that part of them, the skull in particular, remained in Sweden. In France, the remains were first buried in the Abbey of Sainte-Geneviève, then in the convent of the Petits-Augustines. Finally, the remains were put in the Saint-Germain-des-Prés Cathedral, in what is today the Saint-Benoit Chapel. I had a hard time finding it, because I couldn’t believe that Descartes was not buried all by himself. In fact, in the same chapel are buried the two Benedictines Mabillon and Montfaucon, and there is only the bust of Mabillon.
What makes Descartes a true modern: For one perspective see Balz 1952.
Descartes recognized that the methods: The standard, authoritative compilation of Descartes’ works is that by Adam and Tannery 1897–1910. Most of my quotes come from this source. Many translations exist of a number of individual works, such as Veitch’s 1901 The Philosophy of Descartes, which contains Discourse on Method, the Meditations, and the Principles of Philosophy. On Descartes’ philosophy of science see also Clarke 1992.
this deluge of troubling doubts: An excellent introduction to Descartes’ philosophy in general can be found in Cottingham 1986. For a discussion of the Cartesian doubt and the ensuing Cogito see Wolterstorff 1999, Ricoeur 1996, Sorell 2005, Curley 1993, and Beyssade 1993.
He outlined it in a 106-page appendix: Descartes 1637. One of the translations of the entire book is P. J. Olscamp’s 1965 edition (Descartes 1637a). A beautiful translation of The Geometry, which also includes a facsimile of the first edition, is The Geometry of René Descartes (translated by D. E. Smith and M. L. Latham; Descartes 1637b).
Descartes discovered a way to represent: Descartes’ mathematical achievements are nicely summarized in Rouse Ball 1908. A beautiful popular description of Descartes’ life and work can be found in Aczel 2005. The level of abstraction exhibited in Descartes’ algebra is analyzed in Gaukroger 1992.
writing his treatise on cosmology and physics: Descartes’ conviction in the existence of “laws of nature” can be gleaned from a letter he wrote to Mersenne in May 1632: “Now I have become bold enough to seek the cause of the position of each fixed star. For although their distribution seems irregular, in various parts of the universe, I have no doubt that there is between them a natural order which is regular and determinate.”
Two of his laws closely resemble: Adam and Tannery 1897–1910. See also Miller and Miller 1983. A good discussion of Descartes’ physics can be found in Garber 1992. A more general description of Descartes’ natural philosophy appears in Keeling 1968.
Newton’s tomb inside Westminster Abbey: The monument was erected in 1731. It was commissioned from William Kent and the Flemish sculptor Michael Rysbrack. In addition to Newton’s figure, whose elbow rests on some of his works, the sculpture shows youths carrying emblems of Newton’s main discoveries. Behind the sarcophagus there is a pyramid, from the middle of which rises a globe on which several constellations