Hi guys!
While I was searching a little bit on Descartes' life, I found something interesting to share with you all. On the night of 10 November 1619, it is said that Descartes saw three powerful dreams that he later claimed as an inluence in his life.
In the first of these dreams, he found himself ruined and thrown down by a powerful whirlwind while walking near a college. In the second, he was awoken by an inexplicable explosion-like sound in his head to see sparks coming from the stove in his room. In the third dream, he finds a great dictionary and an anthology of ancient Latin poets on his bedside table. In the latter book, he reads a verse that begins, "What path shall I follow in life?" Descartes concluded from these visions that the pursuit of science would prove to be the pursuit of true wisdom and a central part of his life's work.
Well, this is not coming from a strong and reliable source since I searched from the internet, but it makes sense that he influenced what he experienced in his life to choose his own path. What do you think about these dreams?
I think these dreams are giving us some hints about what is going on in Descartes' subconscious brain. Especially the dream, in which he caught himself in a whirlwind while walking beside a college, telling us that he had too much knowledge about different aspects of life, religion, and sciences, and this lead his thoughts to be extremely instable. It appears that in third dream it seems, subconsciously, he'd decided to go with sciences. And in my opinion, chose the right path to follow!
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