Descartes's Secret Notebook by Amir D Aczel

Author:Amir D Aczel [Aczel, Amir D]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780307494801
Publisher: Crown/Archetype
Published: 2009-02-19T05:00:00+00:00

It seems that Beeckman had also been experiencing a transformation through his interactions with Descartes. He developed a burning ambition to establish himself as a leading scientist, and perhaps even to compete with his brilliant friend. Early on in their relationship, on April 23, 1619, Descartes had written Beeckman saying that “if by chance something shall come out of me that would not be viewed with contempt, you may by all rights declare it as your own.” But this was, perhaps, a manifestation of Descartes' extreme politeness and self-effacing nature as well as gratitude to a friend, rather than an invitation to Beeckman to claim credit for Descartes' achievements. At any rate, now Beeckman did claim such credit.

Soon after he last saw Descartes, Beeckman began his own correspondence with Marin Mersenne in Paris. Perhaps Descartes had facilitated the connection between the two men. The correspondence with Mersenne—the central figure in European mathematics and physical science in the century, the man who acted as a clearinghouse for all scientific work on the continent—was motivated by Beeckman's desire to show off his knowledge. Beeckman claimed to Mersenne, and through him to others, that it was he who had given Descartes many of his important ideas. Beeckman began to believe that he was the initiator of mathematical physics, and that Descartes was simply another person who could understand this new science, not its inventor.

Mersenne visited Beeckman in Holland, and continued on to pay a visit to Descartes. From Mersenne, Descartes found out about Beeckman's boastful claims of being the source of Descartes' knowledge—and he was deeply offended. Descartes immediately wrote to Mersenne:

I am very much obliged to you for calling to my attention the ingratitude of my friend. I think that the honor I had given him by writing to him has dazzled him and he thought that you might have a better opinion of him if he told you that he had been my master ten years ago. But he is completely mistaken, for what glory can there be in having taught a man who knows very little and freely admits it as I do? I will not mention any of this to him, since this is what you wish, but I would have much with which to make him ashamed, especially if I had his letter.

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