About the Author

AMIR D. ACZEL is the author of many research articles on mathematics, two textbooks, and nine nonfiction books, including the international bestseller Fermat's Last Theorem, which was nominated for a Los Angeles Times Book Award. Aczel has appeared on over thirty television programs, including nationwide appearances on CNN, CNBC, and Nightline, and on over a hundred radio programs, including NPR's Weekend Edition and Morning Edition. Aczel is a Fellow of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.

Reviews

“Aczel catapults the reader into a world where burgeoning intellect was cloaked in intrigue.” —The Washington Post Book World

“Aczel joins the ranks of Roger Penrose, Stephen Pinker, Francis Crick, and others.”—Keith Devlin, author of Goodbye, Descartes: The End of Logic and the Search for a New Cosmology of the Mind

“Splendid . . . first-rate.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Aczel reveals the mystery behind . . . one of the Western world’s greatest minds . . . [Descartes’s Secret Notebook] reads like a mystery novel as well as a biography.” —Science News

"Aczel catapults the reader into a world where burgeoning intellect was cloaked in intrigue." -The Washington Post Book World

"Aczel joins the ranks of Roger Penrose, Stephen Pinker, Francis Crick, and others."-Keith Devlin, author of Goodbye, Descartes: The End of Logic and the Search for a New Cosmology of the Mind

"Splendid . . . first-rate." -Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Aczel reveals the mystery behind . . . one of the Western world's greatest minds . . . [Descartes's Secret Notebook] reads like a mystery novel as well as a biography." -Science News

What Aczel did for mathematician Fermat (Fermat's Last Theorem) he now does for Descartes in this splendid study 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 part detective story, Aczel's chronicle of Descartes's hidden work hinges on his lost secret notebook. Of 16 pages of coded manuscript, one and a half were copied in 1676 by fellow philosopher and mathematician Leibniz. For him, Descartes's inscription of the cryptic letters "GFRC" immediately revealed his association with the occult fraternity of the Rosicrucians-Leibniz was also a member. The notebook also revealed to Leibniz a discovery made by Descartes that would have transformed mathematics. As Aczel so deftly demonstrates, Descartes's mathematical theories were paths to an understanding the order and mystery of the cosmos, and he kept the notebook hidden because it contained a formula that-because it supported Copernicus's model of the solar system-Descartes feared would lead to his persecution by the Inquisition. Aczel lucidly explains the science, mystery and mathematics of Descartes, who has never been so lively as he is in the pages of this first-rate biography and social history. Agent, John Taylor Williams. (Oct.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.