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René Descartes

Born

in La Haye en Touraine (now Descartes), France

March 31, 1596

Died

February 11, 1650

Website

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/descartes/

Genre

Philosophy, Science

Influences

Plato, Aristotle, Teresa D'Avila, Michel de Montaigne, Francis Bacon, Christiaan Huygens, Alhazen, Averroes, Avicenna, ...more

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René Descartes, also known as Renatus Cartesius (Latinized form), was a highly influential French philosopher, mathematician, scientist, and writer. He has been dubbed the "Father of Modern Philosophy," and much of subsequent Western philosophy is a response to his writings, which continue to be studied closely. His influence in mathematics is also apparent, the Cartesian coordinate system that is used in plane geometry and algebra being named for him, and he was one of the key figures in the Scientific Revolution.

Descartes frequently sets his views apart from those of his predecessors. In the opening section of the Passions of the Soul, a treatise on the Early Modern version of what are now commonly called emotions, he goes so far a René Descartes, also known as Renatus Cartesius (Latinized form), was a highly influential French philosopher, mathematician, scientist, and writer. He has been dubbed the "Father of Modern Philosophy," and much of subsequent Western philosophy is a response to his writings, which continue to be studied closely. His influence in mathematics is also apparent, the Cartesian coordinate system that is used in plane geometry and algebra being named for him, and he was one of the key figures in the Scientific Revolution.

Descartes frequently sets his views apart from those of his predecessors. In the opening section of the Passions of the Soul, a treatise on the Early Modern version of what are now commonly called emotions, he goes so far as to assert that he will write on his topic "as if no one had written on these matters before". Many elements of his philosophy have precedents in late Aristotelianism, the revived Stoicism of the 16th century, or in earlier philosophers like St. Augustine. In his natural philosophy, he differs from the Schools on two major points: First, he rejects the analysis of corporeal substance into matter and form; second, he rejects any appeal to ends — divine or natural — in explaining natural phenomena. In his theology, he insists on the absolute freedom of God’s act of creation.

Descartes was a major figure in 17th century continental rationalism, later advocated by Baruch Spinoza and Gottfried Leibniz, and opposed by the empiricist school of thought consisting of Hobbes, Locke, Berkeley, and Hume. Leibniz, Spinoza and Descartes were all versed in mathematics as well as philosophy, and Descartes and Leibniz contributed greatly to science as well. As the inventor of the Cartesian coordinate system, Descartes founded analytic geometry, the bridge between algebra and geometry, crucial to the invention of calculus and analysis. Descartes' reflections on mind and mechanism began the strain of Western thought that much later, impelled by the invention of the electronic computer and by the possibility of machine intelligence, blossomed into the Turing test and related thought. His most famous statement is: Cogito ergo sum (French: Je pense, donc je suis; English: I think, therefore I am), found in §7 of part I of Principles of Philosophy (Latin) and in part IV of Discourse on the Method (French). ...more

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Average rating: 3.72 · 65,449 ratings · 1,687 reviews · 516 distinct works • Similar authors

	Discourse on Method and Meditations on First Philosophy by René Descartes, Donald A. Cress (Translator) 3.71 avg rating — 24,967 ratings — published 1637 — 82 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Meditations on First Philosophy by René Descartes, Donald A. Cress (Translator) 3.70 avg rating — 17,933 ratings — published 1641 — 291 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Discourse on Method by René Descartes, Donald A. Cress (Translator) 3.71 avg rating — 14,810 ratings — published 1637 — 730 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Philosophical Writings of Descartes, Volume I by René Descartes, John Cottingham (Translator) , Robert Stoothoff (Translator) 4.10 avg rating — 1,294 ratings — published 1911 — 10 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Meditations on First Philosophy: With Selections from the Objections and Replies by René Descartes, John Cottingham (Translator) , Bernard Williams (Introduction) 3.87 avg rating — 1,060 ratings — published 1641 — 17 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Meditations and Other Metaphysical Writings by René Descartes, Desmond M. Clarke (Translator) 3.68 avg rating — 730 ratings — published 1641 — 10 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Selected Philosophical Writings by René Descartes, John Cottingham (Editor) , Dugald Murdoch (Editor) 3.80 avg rating — 684 ratings — published 1927 — 14 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Passions of the Soul by René Descartes, Stephen Voss 3.50 avg rating — 554 ratings — published 1649 — 62 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Discourse on Method and Related Writings by René Descartes, Desmond M. Clarke (Translator) 3.76 avg rating — 307 ratings — published 1637 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Rules for the Direction of the Mind by René Descartes, Laurence J. Lafleur (Translator) 3.65 avg rating — 373 ratings — published 1619 — 49 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by René Descartes…

Quotes by René Descartes

“I think; therefore I am.”
― Rene Descartes

2673 likes

“The reading of all good books is like conversation with the finest men of past centuries.”
― René Descartes

tags: books, literature, reading, words

794 likes

“Cogito ergo sum. (I think, therefore I am.)”
― René Descartes

tags: latin, life-and-living, mottos, thinking

602 likes

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René Descartes’s Followers (1,234)

René Descartes

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