Occasional Papers

Traditions of Conversion: Descartes and His Demon
Anthony Grafton || download

In this essay, derived from one of two Una’s Lectures delivered in the fall of 1999, Anthony Grafton argues that conversion—a radical shift in allegiance and understanding of the world—ranks with the slipperiest of human experiences. Indeed, his investigation of Descartes’ philosophical conversion, from what Descartes portrayed as doubtful beliefs to supposedly certain knowledge, challenges us to look with eyebrows raised at the tales we tell about how Western philosophy and science came to be modern.

Traditions of Conversion historicizes and texturizes Descartes’ conversion with a vibrant inquiry into early modern European conversion narratives. In the end, Grafton effectively troubles Descartes’ self-portrait as the embodiment of disembodied reason with an examination of Descartes’ autobiographical notes, which record that the foundations of his new philosophy lay not in reason but in a dream.

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ISBN 1-881865-22-3; November 1999.