First published 2008
Russell Shorto traces the bizarre journey of René Descartes' remains across three and a half centuries of European history. The story begins in 1650 Stockholm, where the famous philosopher died in exile, and follows French Ambassador Hugues de Terlon's secret mission to retrieve the bones sixteen years later. Shorto reveals how these relics became symbols in the ongoing battle between faith and reason that Descartes himself had ignited with his revolutionary "Cogito ergo sum" and his slim but explosive Discourse on the Method. The author shows how Descartes, a devout Catholic driven by personal tragedy after his daughter's death, inadvertently created the scientific method while trying to understand the natural world. Through the bones' strange odyssey involving Louis XIV, Swedish entrepreneurs, poets, and scientists, Shorto demonstrates how Descartes' skeptical approach demolished two millennia of accepted wisdom and established the foundations of modern thought. The narrative weaves together the philosopher's personal motivations with the broader cultural transformation his ideas unleashed, connecting historical events to contemporary debates about science, religion, and knowledge.
Genres: biography, history, non-fiction, academic
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: historical-fiction
Setting: Stockholm, Europe
Period: 17th Century
319 pages · Hardcover · Doubleday (NY et al.)