Descartes'S Secret Notebook

Starred Review。 What Aczel did for mathematician Fermat（Fermat’s Last Theorem）he now does for Descartes in this splendidstudy about the French philosopher and mathematician （1596–1650）most famous for his paradigm-smashing declaration， “I think;therefore， I am。” Part historical sketch， part biography and partdetective story， Aczel’s chronicle of Descartes’s hidden workhinges on his lost secret notebook。 Of 16 pages of codedmanuscript， one and a half were copied in 1676 by fellowphilosopher and mathematician Leibniz。 For him， Descartes’sinscription of the cryptic letters“GFRC” immediately revealed hisassociation with the occult fraternity of the Rosicrucians—Leibnizwas also a member。 The notebook also revealed to Leibniz adiscovery made by Descartes that would have transformedmathematics。 As Aczel so deftly demonstrates， Descartes'smathematical theories were paths to an understanding the order andmystery of the cosmos， and he kept the notebook hidden because itcontained a formula that—because it supported Copernicus’s model ofthe solar system—Descartes feared would lead to his persecution bythe Inquisition。 Aczel lucidly explains the science， mystery andmathematics of Descartes， who has never been so lively as he is inthe pages of this first-rate biography and social history。作者简介：　　Amir D.Aczel，Ph.D，is a mathematician and the author of twelvebooks，including the international bestseller Fermat’s LastTheorem，which was nominated for a Los Angeles Times Book Prize andhas been translated into nineteen languages。Aczel has appeared onover thirty television prgrams，including the CBS Evening News andABC’s Nightline，on CNN and CNBC，and on over a hundred radioprograms，including NPR’s Weekend Edition and Talk of theNation：Science Friday。In 2004 Aczel was awarded a GuggenheimFellowship。He is a visiting scholar in the history of science atHarvard。