Book Report

Descartes' Secret Notebook by Amir D. Aczel

I know the question you are asking. Is this a book about Math or a book about Philosophy? The answer is yes. If you don't know, Descartes was a French philosopher and mathmatician. This book is about a notebook Descarte had which was written in a secret code. The author presents items and events in Descartes life that caused him to write like that.

It turns out that Descartes was extreamely afraid of the Incusition. He is credited with starting the field of analytic geometry, and he merged geometry with algebra. He invented the cartesian coordinates (The x- y- z- axis grid system...) Some of his work in geometry supported the Coperican Universe, to which the Catholic church was opposed. (Violently.)

It turns out that Descartes thought he could eventually unify all knowledge. (science, he did it with Geometry and Algebra, why not everything?) The secret notebook contained his work that could have started the field of topology. He discovered Euler's theorem 100 years before Euler, but kept it a secret.

Anyway, it's an interesting book, it does a good job describing life in Descartes day, and many of the things Decartes did and discovered.

January 2006