(This is the first and what I hope will be
a series of short book reviews of material that I have read over the past few
months. I will rate each book on a scale of 1 to 5 lightbulbs depending upon
how illuminating the work.)
Author: Russell Shorto
Publisher: Doubleday
Copyright: 2008
Descartes’s Bones, written by Russell
Shorto examines the impact of a man who is arguably the most influential
philosopher in the modern age. He was
seen by many of his contemporaries as someone who laid the intellectual
foundation for the entire modern program which grounds everything from morality
to law, politics and social organization on reason and the individual. Man
became the truth agent of discovery instead of god as the revealer of truth.
Instead of seeing creation as an example of God’s handiwork it became an object
of study unto itself. His “I think therefore I am” revolutionized not only the
study of philosophy which until that time was founded upon the Aristotelian
categories, and replaced it with the rational method.
This change, though
seemingly insignificant or self evident to us today, led to an explosion of new
knowledge in the fields of science, philosophy, politics, and theology. Alas it
lead to the expulsion of God as the first and final cause of creation and
replaced it with the edicts of pure physicalism or materialism, systems of
thought that leave no place for supernatural or teleological ends. Lost was the
belief that creation worked towards a higher purpose of revealing God and we
were left with the conviction that the material world was little more than the
random amalgamation of smaller parts
evolving on it’s own to greater and greater complexity.
By following the path of Descartes’s
remains from Sweden where it was first interred in 1650 to their translation to
France during the French Revolution Shorto demonstrates the implications of
Descartes’s radical new philosophy using the philosophers bones as a metaphor
for its promulgation throughout the world.
One of the interesting facets of this
corporeal journey is the fact that Descartes’s remains became separated over
the years with the skull and at least one finger failing to make the journey
from Sweden to France with the rest of his bones. The skull, which today held
in the Musée de l’homme in Paris, has had a particularly unique journey. It has
been inscribed with the names of its various owners who ranged from the
pedantic (a bar owner) to the learned and powerful who each desired to possess
part of ‘le grand philosophe’. What’s more appropriate Icon of the founder of
rationalism could they possess other than the skull which encapsulated the
brain of the man who launched such a profound revolution that today he is
credited as the inspiration for everything from modern technology, medical
science, and indeed democracy itself.
A must read for anyone interested in
philosophy and its impact on our society.
Rating: five bulbs!
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