Descartes' Secret Notebook A True Tale Of Mathematics, Mysticism, And The Quest To Understand The Universe

Chapter 1 The Gardens of Touraine JUST BEFORE RENE DESCARTES WAS born, on March 31, 1596, his mother, Jeanne Brochard, took an action that may well have altered the course of Western civilization. For like Julius Caesar crossing the Rubicon in 49 B.C., Jeanne Brochard crossed the Creuse River, which lay between her family home, in the region of Poitou, and the small town of La Haye, which lies in the region of Touraine, in western central France. The Descartes family had originated in Poitou and had lived for many years in the town of Chatellerault, about twenty-five kilometers south of La Haye. Descartes' parents, Joachim Descartes and Jeanne Brochard, who were married on January 15, 1589, owned a stately mansion in the center of Chatellerault, at 126 rue Carrou-Bernard (today's rue Bourbon). Joachim Descartes was the councillor of the Parliament of Brittany, and this important job kept him away in distant Rennes. Jeanne needed her mother's help in birthing the baby, and this is why she traveled north and across the river to Touraine to give birth to Rene Descartes in her mother's house in La Haye. Sometime later, once she had recovered, she returned to Chatellerault. Despite this accident of birth, throughout his life, Rene's friends would often call him Rene le Poitevin--Rene of Poitou. The regions of Poitou and Touraine include pastoral farmlands that have been cultivated since antiquity. There are low hills, many of which are forested, and rich flatlands, irrigated by rivers that cut through this fertile land. Cows and sheep graze here, and many kinds of crops are grown. La Haye is a small town of stone houses with gray roofs. At the time of Descartes, the population of the town numbered about 750 people. Chatellerault is a larger, more genteel town than La Haye, with wide avenues and an elegant city square, and it serves as the hub of rural life in the region. Because this part of France is so fertile and rich in water and agricultural resources, the people who live here are well off. North of La Haye one can still visit the beautiful chateaus of the Loire Valley, as well as forests and game reserves, which existed at the time of Descartes. The chateaus, many of them restored to their original state, with lavish fifteenth- and sixteenth-century furnishings and surrounded by sculpted gardens, give us a feel for the life of the rich at the time of Descartes. While the regions of Poitou and Touraine are similar in their topography, scenery, and the way the towns and villages are laid out, there was one important difference between them. While Poitou was mainly Protestant, Touraine was mostly Catholic. We know that in the fifteen years from 1576 to 1591, there were only seventy-two Protestant baptisms in La Haye. This significant religious difference between the two regions would affect the life of Rene Descartes. For this accident of birth--being born, and later also raised, in a strongly Catholic region while his family hailed from a Protestant one--would exert a significant impact on Rene's personality, thus influencing his actions throughout his life and determining the course of development of his philosophical and scientific ideas and the way he divulged them to the world. Descartes lived in a century that knew severe tensions, including wars, between Catholics and Protestants. The fact that he was born in a Catholic region and would be raised by a devout Catholic governess, while many of his family's friends and associates in Poitou were Protestants, contributed to Descartes' natural secretiveness. It also made him, as an adult, much more concerned about the Catholic Inquisition than perhaps he should have been, and not worried enough about the persecution he could face from Protestants. Consequently, Descartes would refrain from publishing elements of his science and philosophy for fear of the Inquisition, and yet would rAczel, Amir D. is the author of 'Descartes' Secret Notebook A True Tale Of Mathematics, Mysticism, And The Quest To Understand The Universe', published 2005 under ISBN 9780767920339 and ISBN 0767920333.