Personal Life

In these paragraphs , I will be talking about the life of Jean le Rond D'Alembert.

Jean le Rond D’Alembert was born on November 17, 1717 in Paris, France to Mme de Tecin and Louis-Camus Destouches. He was her illegitimate son and was born while his father was out of the country. She abandoned him on the steps of a church called Saint-Jean-le-Rond. He was found by the church, sent to the home for homeless children, and baptized Jean Baptiste  after the church on whose steps he had been found.

When his father returned to Paris, he tracked down and made contact with his small son and arranged for him to be cared for by a glazier’s wife, Mme Rousseau. A glazier is a person who cuts glass so that it fits windows and doors. D’Alembert would always regard her as his real mother particularly because his real mother never recognized him as her son.

The first school Jean attended was a private school. His education was being arranged by his father. D’Alembert’s father died in 1726 when he was 9 years old and left him with just enough money for security. The Destouches family (his father’s family) continued to look after his education and they arranged for him to enter Jansenist College des Quatre Nations. He was enrolled in the name of Jean Baptiste Daremberg but soon changed his last name to D’Alembert. When he was enrolled he was 12 years old.

The College was a wonderful place for D’Alembert to study mathematics even though the course was elementary. The mathematics course was taught by Professor Carron and was based on Varignon’s lectures. D’Alembert and was able to make use of the excellent mathematics library that was at the college. As well as the mathematical training, he learned about Descartes’ physical ideas at the college but later on in life he had little respect for Descartes’ views.

D’Alembert was sometimes seen in salons, which in Paris back then was where government, society, and the academic people of the world met regularly. They would talk about their different views and ideas. Many inventions have been made from their combined ideas.

D’Alembert used mathematics to help him and other people understand music and science.

He believed that Kings should not be born into royalty, but that they should be elected by a council consisting of people like himself. He was against Christianity and religion and wrote a book about these things. This made many people mad and angry. D’Alembert had a girlfriend called Julie de Lespinasse who was a writer. Eventually they became close friends instead of boyfriend and girlfriend. Her friendship was ended only by her death, after which he found out that she had had other lovers besides him. I think that D'Alembert had a exciting, but sad life. I hope you enjoyed reading about D'Alembert's life.

BB