The Princess and the Philosopher
By Dana Mackenzie
The legacy of René Descartes should include the contributions of his student, Elisabeth of Bohemia, in the development of his ideas.
This Article From Issue
March-April 2023
Volume 111, Number 2
Page 80
Thirteen years ago, I wrote an article for American Scientist called “A Tisket, a Tasket, an Apollonian Gasket” (January–February 2010), which explored the fascinating mathematics and history behind a certain type of fractal foam—the “Apollonian gaskets” of the title. Recently, I’ve begun to see that history itself is like a fractal: When you take even the smallest event and magnify it, it springs to life and turns out to have a whole story of its own.
QUICK TAKE
- René Descartes’s correspondence with Princess Elisabeth of Bohemia may seem like a historical footnote, but their letters reveal her integral role in the development of his ideas.
- Princess Elisabeth pushed Descartes to work his solution to the classical Apollonian circle problem through to the end. That exercise resulted in Descartes’s circle theorem.
- Reexamining the origin stories behind big ideas can complicate our understanding of how theories develop and lead us to reevaluate whom we lionize in the history of innovation.
American Scientist Comments and Discussion
To discuss our articles or comment on them, please share them and tag American Scientist on social media platforms. Here are links to our profiles on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
If we re-share your post, we will moderate comments/discussion following our comments policy.