Descartes

What This Book Covers

1. Prologue
2. Chapter One - The Child of War
3. Chapter Two - A Hidden Blade
4. Chapter Three - Soldier of Fortune
5. Chapter Four - The Dream That Changed Everything
6. Chapter Five - Geometry and God
7. Chapter Six - The Method
8. Chapter Seven - Cogito, Ergo Sum
9. Chapter Eight - A World of Machines
10. Chapter Nine - Enemies at the Gates
11. Chapter Ten - The Discourse and the Demon
12. Chapter Eleven - Science and Shadows
13. Chapter Twelve - The Queen and the Ghost
14. Chapter Thirteen - The Bones of Descartes
15. Chapter Fourteen - Mind vs. Matter
16. Chapter Fifteen - The Rise of the Rationalists
17. Chapter Sixteen - The Doubt That Built the World

Excerpt

PROLOGUE RENÉ DESCARTES DIDN’T invent the modern world. But he definitely cracked it open. He wasn’t trying to cause problems. He just wanted to know what was actually true. Not “truth” because the Church said so. Not “truth” because everyone agreed on it. Just truth you couldn’t argue with, the kind that doesn’t flinch when you poke at it. So he started doubting everything. Not in a moody, dramatic way. More like a logic puzzle that got out of hand. If something could be false, he tossed it out. The senses? Unreliable. Other people? Definitely unreliable. His own body? Could be a hallucination for all he knew. Eventually, the only thing left was the fact that he was thinking at all. That’s...