ABSTRACT
It was into the confused intellectual and cultural milieu in the Paris of Louis XIII that Rene Descartes would move as a young adult. This chapter offers a view of Descartes that in many ways departs from the received account. To a certain extent such an approach is justified by the fact that a received account exists; there is little danger that the quirks in this story will cause a serious misapprehension of the life and work of Descartes throughout the learned world. Rene Descartes's early life is not terribly well documented, although that fact has not inhibited his biographers. To establish a patina of education in preparation for this dubious career, Rene Descartes purchased a baccalaureate at Poitiers in 1616 and a licentiate in law the very next day. The military arenas in which Descartes gained experience are better documented than the intellectual ones.
