Bob Wildblood wrote:
> This whole Descartes thing has fascinated me and honest to gosh I have
> already used some of the material in a class (admittedly I was really
> stretching a point, but it was interesting to the students). I even told
> them that I would keep them informed because I knew more information would
> be forthcoming.
Guess I have to report what I have then. :-)
So, back to the story:
"Did Descartes's body reach Paris intact? In 1667, the rumor
circulated that 'at least part of his remains were kept in Sweden.'
And in eighteenth-century Sweden, people talked freely of Descartes's
skull being passed from hand to hand. For ease of transportation, 'a
copper casket only two and a half feet long had been made,' and the
skull and bones were detached so that they could be 'arranged one on
top of another.' During the night, the captain of the guards [My
note: this obviously is different than the ship's captain I had
erroneously reported earlier -- I can't believe I still trust my
memory on such things. Sorry!], Isaac Planstrom, supposedly took the
skull to keep repectfully until his death.* That name, Planstrom,
along with Descartes's name and those of later owners, was inscribed
on the skull offered to France in 1812 by the Swedish chemist
Berzelius."
...
{Insert my earlier post here}
{Now picking up where my earlier post left off...}
"Finding himself in Paris, the Swede Berzelius heard that the remains
were incomplete and, especially that the head was missing. When he
returned to Stockholm, he learned that 'Descartes's skull' had just
been auctioned off. He went to find the buyer, who gave it to him at
the same price after he learned that Berzelius was to take it back to
France. On 6 April 1821, Berzelius wrote a letter to Cuvier,
expressing his convictioin that the skull was authentic, and offered
it 'to be joined to the remains of the philosopher.' Cuvier had a
report writtenn (sic) and left the skull at the Natural Science
Museum, part of the Musee de l'Homme; it often exhibits it opposite
the skull of the Neanderthal man or that of Cartouche.
"That body, first abandoned with victims of plague and children who
were not saved [My note: this refers to the cemetery where Descartes
was first placed in Sweden -- see below], then transported several
times and probably mutilated, was the least important part of man for
Descartes, the instrument underlying the activity of the mind. He
hoped our souls would know 'felicities much greater than those we
enjoy in this world ... even with the memory of the past.' Did that
also encompass a persistent link with the course of time and these
sinister adventures? The end of the epitaph in Latin on his tomb in
Saint-Germain-des-Pres invites readers to look higher: 'Now / The
truth / He pursued all his life / In vision / He enjoys.'"
*Author's footnote: "Arkenholtz, p.23 (in vol. 4 of 1754; vol. 1 is
from 1751), admits he bought it in 1752, incomplete and with
inscriptions (he not indicate whether it was the lower jaw that was
missing). And his name appears, with others, after that of Planstrom
(AT12:623-624). In volume 1, he says the officer who took it kept
'as one of the most beautiful relics of that philosopher' (p. 28)."
(References available by request.)
So, nothing here on other missing body parts, although it is implied
above. The best I can come up with regarding the story of the French
ambassador walking off with the right index finger is the following:
"An article translated from teh Swedish explains that 'Descartes was
not properly interred; he was buried in the place where one puts
children who died before baptism, instead of where one puts those
who died after baptism,' at the north end of the same cemetery. The
confusion -- perhaps provoked by some enemy? -- was facilitated by
the fact that the coffin was carried without ornament or ceremony, at
four o'clock in the morning, by four men from the French embassy."
There was motive *and* opportunity... <shrug> I have no clue where
Descartes's finger might be.
If anyone would like these particular passages in their original
form, let me know and I can fax or snail mail them to you.
Reference:
Rodis-Lewis, G. (1998) (Translated by Jane Marie Todd) _Descartes:
His Life and Thought_ Cornell Univ. Press: Ithaca, NY.
Might have to read the rest of the book now...
Sue
--
Sue Frantz [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Assistant Professor of Psychology Office: (505) 439-3752
New Mexico State Univ - Alamogordo Fax: (505) 439-3802
Alamogordo, NM 88310 http://web.nmsu.edu/~sfrantz
