René Descartes
René Descartes | |
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Portrait after Frans Hals[note 1] | |
| Born | 31 March 1596 La Haye en Touraine, France |
| Died | 11 February 1650 (aged 53) |
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| Main interests | Epistemology, metaphysics, mathematics, physics, cosmology, ethics |
| Notable ideas | See list
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René Descartes (/deɪˈkɑːrt/ day-KART, also UK: /ˈdeɪkɑːrt/ DAY-kart; Middle French: [rəne dekart] ⓘ; [note 2][2] 31 March 1596 – 11 February 1650)[3][4]: 58 was a French philosopher, scientist, and mathematician, widely considered a seminal figure in the emergence of modern philosophy and science. Mathematics was paramount to his method of inquiry, and he connected the previously separate fields of geometry and algebra into analytic geometry.
Refusing to accept the authority of previous philosophers, Descartes frequently set his views apart from the philosophers who preceded him. In the opening section of the Passions of the Soul, an early modern treatise on emotions, Descartes goes so far as to assert that he will write on this topic "as if no one had written on these matters before." His best known philosophical statement is "cogito, ergo sum" ("I think, therefore I am," French: "Je pense, donc je suis").
Descartes has often been called the father of modern philosophy, and he is largely seen as responsible for the increased attention given to epistemology in the 17th century.[5] He was one of the key figures in the Scientific Revolution, and his Meditations on First Philosophy and other philosophical works continue to be studied. His influence in mathematics is equally apparent, being the namesake of the Cartesian coordinate system. Descartes is also credited as the father of analytic geometry, which facilitated the discovery of infinitesimal calculus and analysis.
- ^ Nadler, Steven, The Philosopher, The Priest, and The Painter: A Portrait of Descartes Archived 15 November 2020 at the Wayback Machine (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2013), pp. 174–198.
- ^ Wells, John (2008). Longman Pronunciation Dictionary (3rd ed.). Pearson Longman. ISBN 978-1-4058-8118-0.
- ^ "Descartes". Collins English Dictionary. HarperCollins. Archived from the original on 9 August 2017. Retrieved 12 March 2019.
- ^ Colie, Rosalie L. (1957). Light and Enlightenment. Cambridge University Press. p. 58.
- ^ Bertrand Russell (2004) History of western philosophy Archived 16 August 2021 at the Wayback Machine pp. 511, 516–17.
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