The Princess and the Philosopher ― Letters of Elisabeth of the Palatine to Rene Descartes

Princess Palatine Elisabeth, who resided in the culturally flourishing 17th-century environment of the Dutch Republic, was the scholarly elder daughter of a famous royal family (her mother was the exiled queen of Bohemia; her younger sister would be mother of a king of England). She corresponded with DTscartes over a period of seven years (from the time she was 24 years old and he was 40). Valuing her fresh insights and questions, DTscartes carefully kept her letters until his death; but they have been little studied for a variety of reasons. Here, Nye (philosophy and religious studies, U. of Wisconsin-Whitewater) provides critical and historical analyses of the correspondence showing how Elisabeth's thinking inspired and influenced the great philosopher. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Andrea Nye is professor of philosophy at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. Her books include Philosophia: The Thought of Rosa Luxemburg, Simone Weil, and Hannah Arendt (1994) and Words of Power: A Feminist Reading of the History of Logic (1990).