Fundas of body-mind

Rene Descartes came to our class in college; not literally of course: we were learning his algebraic geometry. His philosophy that separated reason and emotion came much later —that too was mind-blowing.

Like most influential thinkers, however, the French polymath seems to have had a deeply divisive effect. The consortium of those who condemn the 17th-century philosopher includes psychologists, feminists, animal rights activists, not to forget philosophers and even politicians.

In his Earth in Balance, for instance, former US vice-president Al Gore complained that “Cartesian approach to the human story allows us to believe that we are separate from the earth, entitled to view it nothing more than an inanimate collection of resources that we can exploit how we like”.

To add insult to that injury, some Marxists have blamed Descartes for alienation of workers under capitalism! The treatment of Descartes’ mortal remains mirrors the manner in which his thinking sundered faith and reason. His bones were dug and reburied several times since he died in Sweden in 1650; but in their posthumous travels, his skull and the rest of the skeleton somehow got separated.

Steven Nadler’s new book, The Philosopher, the Priest, and the Painter, tries to show why Descartes, regarded as a superstar in his day, still matters as “the greatest philosopher in a century full of philosophers”.

Descartes despaired that there’s nothing he could know for sure. But he rallied around soon believing that one cannot possibly doubt one’s own existence. His Mahavakyawas, Cogito ergo sum: I am, I exist!