Renè Descartes

Renè Descartes
Introduction
René Descartes (1596 - 1650) was a French philosopher, mathematician, scientist and
writer of the Age of Reason. He has been called the "Father of Modern Philosophy", He
is the responsible of one of the most well-known quotes in philosophy "Cogito, ergo
sum" ("I think, therefore I am").
He was a mathematician first creative mathematician of the first order, an important

scientific thinker, and an original metaphysician. During of his lifetime, he was a
mathematician first, a natural scientist or “natural philosopher” second, and a
metaphysician third.
Descartes was known among the learned in his day as a top mathematician, as the
developer of a new and comprehensive physics or theory of nature. he has been called
the father of modern philosophy Because he was one of the first to abandon
Scholastic Aristotelianism, because he formulated the first modern version of mind-body
dualism, from which stems the mind-body problem, and because he promoted the
development of a new science grounded in observation and experiment.
CONTRIBUTION
HE WROTE ONE OF THE MOST INFLUENTIAL WORKS OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

The book was divided into six parts: considerations to understand natural sciences; the
rules that defined the method used by the author; the maxims and morals accepted to be
the basis of the method; proof of soul and god; and the understanding of physics, the
human heart and soul of all living objects.
HIS STATEMENT “I THINK, THEREFORE I AM” BECAME FUNDAMENTAL TO

WESTERN PHILOSOPHY. He further explained this statement as if he doubted, then
something or someone must be doing the doubting; therefore the very fact that he
doubted proved his existence. This proposition went on to become a fundamental
element of Western philosophy. This was because it formed a secure foundation for
knowledge in the face of radical doubt. While other knowledge could be a figment of
imagination, deception, or mistake, Descartes asserted that the very act of doubting one’s
own existence served, at minimum, as proof of the reality of one’s own mind; there must
be a thinking entity, in this case the self, for there to be a thought.
HE INVENTED THE INFLUENTIAL CARTESIAN COORDINATE SYSTEM. La

Géométrie (Geometry) is the groundbreaking work of Descartes in mathematics. It was
published in 1637 as one of the appendices of Discourse on the Method. In La Géométrie,
Descartes first proposed that each point in two dimensions can be described by two
numbers on a plane, one giving the point’s horizontal location and the other giving the
vertical location. He thus invented the Cartesian coordinate system, which forms
the foundation of analytic geometry.
DESCARTES IS REGARDED AS THE FATHER OF ANALYTIC GEOMETRY. Analytic
geometry, also known as Cartesian geometry after Rene Descartes, is the study of
geometry using the Cartesian coordinate system. It allowed for the first time
the conversion of geometry into algebra; and vice versa. Any algebraic equation can be
represented on the Cartesian plane by plotting on it the solution set of the equation.
HIS MATHEMATICAL WORK LAID THE BASIS FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF

CALCULUS. Analytic geometry of Descartes laid the foundation for the development of
calculus by Isaac Newton and Gottfried Leibniz. It also unlocked the possibility of
navigating geometries of higher dimensions. Thus, the work of Descartes in mathematics
transformed the field forever. Apart from analytic geometry, Descartes developed his rule
of signs, a technique for determining the number of positive or negative real roots of a
polynomial. He was also the first to use a standard notation for the superscripts to denote
powers, that is he was the first to denote the variable x-squared as x2.
HE HAD AN INFLUENTIAL ROLE IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN PHYSICS.

Rene Descartes contributed significantly to the development of modern physics. Most
importantly, he provided the first distinctly modern formulation of laws of nature. His first
law states “that each thing always remains in the same state; and consequently, when it
is once moved, it always continues to move” while his second law holds that “all
movement is, of itself, along straight lines”. These two laws of Descartes were later
incorporated into Newton’s first law of motion. Descartes’ third law addresses the
behavior of bodies when they collide. Apart from these laws, Descartes discovered an
early form of the law of conservation of mechanical momentum.
HIS WORK MEDITATIONS ON FIRST PHILOSOPHY HAD A HUGE IMPACT ON
MODERN PHILOSOPHY. The book contains six meditations, in which Descartes first
discards all belief in things that are not absolutely certain, and then tries to establish what
can be known for sure. Methodic doubt or Cartesian doubt is a systematic process of
being skeptical about the truth of one’s beliefs. The first two of Descartes’ Meditations
formulate his famous methodic doubt. They are considered hugely important and
represent the portion of Descartes’s writings that most influenced modern philosophy.
DESCARTES WAS THE FIRST TO FORMULATE THE MIND–BODY PROBLEM IN ITS

MODERN FORM. He formulated the first modern version of mind-body dualism known
as Cartesian dualism. Descartes philosophized that mind and body are really distinct. He
reached this conclusion by arguing that the nature of the mind is completely different from
that of the body and therefore it is possible for one to exist without the other. According
to him, the mind is a thinking, non-extended thing while the body is an extended, non-
thinking thing. Descartes also clearly identified the mind with consciousness and self-
awareness; and distinguished it from the brain as the seat of intelligence.
HE PLAYED A KEY ROLE IN PROPAGATING THE THEORY OF FOUNDATIONALISM.

Epistemology is a branch of philosophy concerned with the nature of knowledge,
justification and the rationality of belief. The regress argument is a problem in
epistemology. According to this argument, any proposition requires a justification.
However, any justification itself requires support. This means that any proposition
whatsoever can be endlessly questioned. Foundationalism is a theory which responds to
the regress problem by asserting that certain “foundations” or “basic beliefs” support
other beliefs but do not themselves require justification from other beliefs.

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Renè Descartes

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Renè Descartes

He was a mathematician first creative mathematician of the first order, an important

HE WROTE ONE OF THE MOST INFLUENTIAL WORKS OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

HIS STATEMENT “I THINK, THEREFORE I AM” BECAME FUNDAMENTAL TO

HE INVENTED THE INFLUENTIAL CARTESIAN COORDINATE SYSTEM. La

HIS MATHEMATICAL WORK LAID THE BASIS FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF

HE HAD AN INFLUENTIAL ROLE IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN PHYSICS.

DESCARTES WAS THE FIRST TO FORMULATE THE MIND–BODY PROBLEM IN ITS

HE PLAYED A KEY ROLE IN PROPAGATING THE THEORY OF FOUNDATIONALISM.

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