The Art of Philosophy: The Curious Case of Descartes's Fabulous "World"

press release: The Department of Philosophy-UW Madison is proud to present Professor Steve Nadler's lecture on The Art of Philosophy: The Curious Case of Descartes's Fabulous "World".

In 1633, the condemnation of Galileo by the Catholic Church really scared Descartes. He decided not to publish his first book, The World, since it also defends a Copernican view of the cosmos. When, after Descartes’s death, a friend prepared the work for publication, he realized that something was missing: pictures!  But where was he to find them? And why were they needed? This lecture—a combination of philosophy, history of science and art history—will tell the story of the strange and frustrating search for illustrations for what can rightly be called “the book that made philosophy modern”.

Steven Nadler is the William H. Hay II Professor of Philosophy and Evjue-Bascom Professor in Humanities. A Pulitzer Prize finalist, his most recent books are Spinoza’s Scandalous Treatise and the Birth of the Secular Age and The Philosopher, the Priest and the Painter: A Portrait of Descartes.