A PHILOSOPHER'S LIFE

Theo Verbeek University

After Descartes graduated in Law in November 1616, he seems to have spent one year with his family before joining the Dutch army in , where he probably arrived at the beginning of 1618.1 At the end ofthat year he met Isaac Beeckman (1588-1637), spent much time with him, and left for Germany, possibly via Denmark.2 Descartes was present at the coronation of the Emperor, in Frankfurt, in September 1619.3 He met a learned Jesuit, Johannes Molitor (1570- 1627), who gave him a copy of Charron's Sagesse.* And he probably met the mathematician Faulhaber (1580-1635).5 It is in the region of Ulm or Neuburg presumably that he also had, in the night of 10-11 November 1619, his famous dreams.6 He then went back, possibly (but there is nothing to prove it) through the , to France, signing a contract in Rennes in April 1622.7 If we skip Descartes' journey to Italy (1623-1625), of which nothing much is known, as

1 According to a note of Frans van Schooten, Descartes spent 15 months in Breda before leaving for Germany: 'mansit autem Bredae per 15 menses, unde in Germaniam discessit, dum intestina bella ibi orirentur, ut mihi ipse narravit.' AT X, 646. Since Descartes certainly left Breda in May 1619 (see below) that would mean that he arrived there at the beginning of 1618. All works of Descartes are quoted in the latest reprint of the Adam/Tannery (AT) edition (11 vols., Paris: Vrin, 1996). References to 'Watson' concern Richard A. Watson, Cogito ergo sum: The Life of René Descartes, Boston: Godine, 2002. 2 Descartes' letter to Beeckman of 29 April, 1619 (AT X, 164-165) is not from Copenhagen but from Amsterdam, where Descartes planned boarding a ship to Copenhagen (against Watson, p. 90). 3 Discours II, AT VI 11. The coronation festivities were from July to September. 4 See the note by Frédéric de Buzon in Bulletin Cartésien 20/'Archives de Philosophie, 55 (1992). 5 For the latest and I believe definitive argument see Edouard Mehl, Descartes en Allemagne 1619-1620, Strassburg: Presses Universitaires de Strasbourg, 2001, pp. 192-194. 6 Discours II, AT VI, 11; Cogitationes prwatae, AT X, 216. 7 AT I, 1; Adrien Baillet, Vie de Monsieur Des-Cartes, 2 vols., Paris: Horthemels, 1692 (henceforward cited as 'Baillet'), I, 116. Other contracts were signed in May, June and July; Baillet II, 460. That Descartes passed a second time through the Low Countries (including the Spanish Low Countries) is the (unlikely) suggestion of Baillet. 54 THEO VERBEEK well as a period in Paris of about three years (1625-1628), in which the intellectual foundations were laid for everything that would fol• low, we arrive at one of the most discussed decisions of Descartes' life, that of settling in the United Provinces. Most commentators present this as a decision of a definitive nature. According to them Descartes literally fled France (more particularly his relatives) and settled permanently in a foreign country, which he had chosen carefully because it met certain very specific require• ments. But how certain is that? The hypothesis I want to explore in this short contribution to a 'Festschrift' for Descartes' latest biog• rapher is that Descartes came to the Netherlands for one or more precise projects; that it was his intention to return after these would be finished; and that he remained more or less by accident—in other words, that the reasons why eventually he remained in the Netherlands were not the same as those for which he came. On the reasons why Descartes came to the Low countries Beeckman tells us something in a note on Descartes' first visit, on 8 October 1628, after he had not seen him for nine years: He told me that in arithmetic and geometry he had achieved everything he could wish; that is, in those nine years he had done all a human intellect could do. Of which he gave me some unmistakeable examples. Later, he said, he would send me from Paris his Algebra, which he claimed was finished and which would allow him to arrive at a perfect geometry; indeed, at all knowledge humanly possible. He would send it before long or come here himself to publish (edendam) and polish (limandarri) it and do together (communi opera) whatever was as yet to be done in the sciences.8 So if Descartes were to come back to or the Netherlands at all, which was not yet certain, his first intention was to work with Beeckman and 'publish' and 'polish' his 'Algebra,' not as an isolated piece of mathematics but as the basis for a complete system of knowl• edge. But Descartes had not yet made up his mind: He would either

8 'Is dicebat mihi se in arithmeticis et geometricis nihil amplius optare: id est, se tantum in iis his novem annis profecisse, quantum humanum ingenium capere pos- sit. Cujus rei non obscure mihi specimina reddidit. Paulo post Parisiis suam Algebram, quam perfectam dicit, quaque ad perfectam Geometriae scientiam pervenit, imo qua ad omnem cognitionem humanam pervenire potest, propediem ad me missu- rus, aut ipsemet hue ad earn edendam et limandam venturus, ut communi opera id quod restât in scientiis perficiamus.' Beeckman, Journal, ed. Cornells de Waard, 4 vols., The Hague: Nijhoff, 1939-1953, vol. 3, pp. 94-95.