By Jessica Schneider Oct 14, 2008, 10:04 GMT
“Descartes' Bones: A Skeletal History of the Conflict between Faith and Reason” is the full title by Russell Shorto.
According to the NYT, the book: “has two favorite types of discourse: expanding on Descartes’s place in the history of ideas and pointing out strange coincidences that shaped his path through posterity. These interests are so different that “Descartes’ Bones” has built-in organizational problems.
But Mr. Shorto leaps from one intriguing topic to another, doing it with verve if not consistency. He naturally begins with the living, breathing Descartes, whose proclamation “Cogito ergo sum” (“I think, therefore I am”) can be seen as the cornerstone of modern scientific thought.”
Publishers Weekly states:
“But the bones are too slender to bear the metaphorical weight of modernity that he gives them. Their sporadic appearance in the tale also makes them a shaky narrative frame for the sprawling events Shorto presents as the result of Descartes's work: the Enlightenment, the French Revolution, the 19th century's scientific explosion, 21st-century battles between faith and reason. Given Shorto's splendid storytelling gifts, this is a pleasure to read, but ultimately unsatisfying.”
Published by Doubleday, the full NYT review can be found here.
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