Asserted criminal embraced conservative philosopher (9)
I believe the answer is:
descartes
'philosopher' is the definition.
(I know that Descartes is a philosopher)
'asserted criminal embraced conservative' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'conservative' could be 'c' (UK political abbreviation) and 'c' is found in the answer.
an anagram of 'asserted' is 'desartes' which is within the remaining letters.
No letters remain.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for descartes that I've seen before include "French philosopher, d. 1650" , "Rene --, philosopher" , "One who thought" , "Cogito ergo sum philosopher" , "Cogito, ergo sum man" .)