.mw-parser-output .hidden-begin{box-sizing:border-box;width:100%;padding:5px;border:none;font-size:95%}.mw-parser-output .hidden-title{font-weight:bold;line-height:1.6;text-align:left}.mw-parser-output .hidden-content{text-align:left}You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in French. (August 2023) Click [show] for important translation instructions. View a machine-translated version of the French article. Machine translation, like DeepL or Google Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia. Consider adding a topic to this template: there are already 5,969 articles in the main category, and specifying|topic= will aid in categorization. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing French Wikipedia article at [[:fr:Francine Descartes]]; see its history for attribution. You should also add the template ((Translated|fr|Francine Descartes)) to the talk page. For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.

Francine Descartes (19 July 1635, Deventer – 7 September 1640, Amersfoort) was René Descartes's daughter.

Francine was the daughter of Helena Jans van der Strom,[1] a domestic servant of Thomas Sergeant — a bookshop owner and associate of Descartes at whose house in Amsterdam Descartes lodged on 15 October 1634. When Descartes moved back from Amsterdam to Deventer the following winter, Helena went with him. Although Francine was referred to as an illegitimate child, her baptism in Deventer on 7 August 1635, was recorded among the legitimate births. Helena officially remained Descartes' servant, and René referred to Francine as his niece, but both were included in his life. In 1640 Descartes wrote that he would bring his daughter to France to learn the language and be educated,[2] but before that could happen, Francine died of scarlet fever at the age of five. Russell Shorto postulated that the experience of fatherhood and losing a child formed a turning point in Descartes' work, changing its focus from medicine to a quest for universal answers.[2]

Helena was the only woman with whom Descartes is known to have been intimate and she and Descartes appear to have remained close after Francine's death. Helena may have moved with Descartes to his next addresses — including in 1643 to Egmond-Binnen — where in 1644 she married the local innkeeper Jan Jansz van Wel. Notary acts discovered by Jeroen van de Ven show that Descartes provided the 1000-guilder dowry for this wedding.[1][2] Descartes himself would remain in Egmond-Binnen until 1649, the longest period he ever stayed at any residence.

Francine had four half brothers through her mother, Helena:

After Francine's death, René Descartes is said to have constructed an automaton in her likeness.[3][4][5]

References

  1. ^ a b Jeroen van de Ven, Quelques données nouvelles sur Helena Jans, Bulletin Cartésien XXXI, Centre d’Études Cartésiennes, 2003.
  2. ^ a b c Russell Shorto, Descartes' Bones: A Skeletal History of the Conflict Between Faith and Reason ISBN 978-0-385-51753-9 (New York: Random House, 14 October 2008).
  3. ^ Gaby Wood (25 August 2002), "'Edison's Eve'", The New York Times
  4. ^ Kang, Minsoo (2017), "The Mechanical Daughter of Rene Descartes: The origin and history of an intellectual fable", Modern Intellectual History, 14 (3): 633–660, doi:10.1017/S147924431600024X
  5. ^ "Descartes' Daughter", Swiss Institute, 2013

Sources

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