In response to a comment by Bob Wildblood of unclear intent, Martin
Bourgeois replied that:
>
> 4. Such interesting details about Descartes may help capture students'
> attention as you talk about his ideas, so the topic is actually quite
> relevant to teaching psychology.
>
Exactly my feeling as well. So, encouraged by Martin, by Sue Frantz's
great posts on the topic, and by her necessary reminder that libraries
are also useful, I tried looking in books rather than the Internet.
My first stop was the Michelin Green Guide to Paris. If anyone knows
where the bodies are buried, it's the Michelin Man. From this source
it seems, contrary to what I had assumed, that the Abbey and the
Church of St. Genevieve are different structures although only a
head's roll from each other. So one story is that Descartes was
buried in the Church which was then renamed the Pantheon. Another is
that he was buried in the Abbey and then exhumed.
Michelin Man does not say that Descartes is anywhere to be found in
that vicinity, though. He references him in the church of St. Germain
des Pres, as Sue had said. Curiously, M. Man lists only the
"headstones of the tombs of Descartes and two...monks", while listing
other "tombs". Is he trying to tell us that only the headstone but not
Descartes has been deposited there?
Nevertheless, I'm now inclined to accept Sue's version of events and
agree that the sources which put Descartes in the Pantheon are in
error. This is on the strength of the following excerpt from S.
Gaukroger (1995), _Descartes: an Intellectual Biography_
(p.416-417), under the wonderful subtitle "Death and Dismemberment".
"In 1666 his remains were exhumed to be returned to France...The
French ambassador was allowed to cut off the forefinger of his right
hand...On their arrival in Paris...the remains were placed in the
chapel of St. Paul, and transferred to the Abbey of St.
Etienne-du-Mond on 24 July, 1667. When the Abbey was closed in 1792,
the body was reburied in a sarcophagus at the Jardin Elysee des
Monuments Francais, only to be removed again in 1819 to be reburied in
the church of St. Germain-des-Pres, where it now lies in the chapel of
the Sacre Coeur, evidently between the remains of two Benedictines,
although the original tombstone was lost, found, and then mislaid
again, and one may entertain some doubts as to which of the remains
are those of Descartes. But these are insignficant compared to the
doubts one might entertain about the skull that is in with the
remains, for that, it would seem, is certainly not Descartes [various
misadventures of Descartes' skull omitted; a footnote also says "If
indeed there is a skull in with the remains"]...[The real] skull is
now to be found in the Musee de l'Homme in the Palais de Chaillot
[just across the river from the Eiffel Tower]. Various attempts have
been made to authenticate the skull...Where Descartes' forefinger has
gone, no one knows, but relics tend to multiply rather than disappear,
so we need have no fear that it is lost."
I say it's time to dig him up once more. If they can do it to Yves
Montand, why not Descartes? BTW, the introduction to Gaukroger's book
relates a story about Descartes always travelling with a "mechanical
life-sized female doll...and he is said to have slept with her".
Sadly, Gaukroger labels the story a fake, a kind of 18th century urban
legend which lasted into the early 20th century. Impressive
considering that they didn't even have the Internet back then.
-Stephen
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Stephen Black, Ph.D. tel: (819) 822-9600 ext 2470
Department of Psychology fax: (819) 822-9661
Bishop's University e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Lennoxville, QC
J1M 1Z7
Canada Department web page at http://www.ubishops.ca/ccc/div/soc/psy
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