Character
"In a book about their relationship, Leon Petit claims that Descartes and Elisabeth were in love with one another . Genevieve Rodis-Lewis is inclined to agree, though in her opinion it was not a sexual passion."
In her correspondence with Descartes she poses one of the most critical questions regarding his philosophy of Dualism - which states that mind and body are separate entities - namely that if mind and body are two separate entities then how do they interact with each other? Descartes never provided a satisfying answer to this question.
She is described as a woman of utmost intelligence speaking six languages and having an aptitude for mathematics and art. Additionally, she was a very gifted painter, among her other talents.
Read more about this topic: Elisabeth Of The Palatinate
Famous quotes containing the word character:
“We have good reason to believe that memories of early childhood do not persist in consciousness because of the absence or fragmentary character of language covering this period. Words serve as fixatives for mental images. . . . Even at the end of the second year of life when word tags exist for a number of objects in the child’s life, these words are discrete and do not yet bind together the parts of an experience or organize them in a way that can produce a coherent memory.”
—Selma H. Fraiberg (20th century)
“In the tale proper—where there is no space for development of character or for great profusion and variety of incident—mere construction is, of course, far more imperatively demanded than in the novel.”
—Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849)
“The serial number of a human specimen is the face, that accidental and unrepeatable combination of features. It reflects neither character nor soul, nor what we call the self. The face is only the serial number of a specimen.”
—Milan Kundera (b. 1929)