René Descartes (1596–1650) was a French philosopher, mathematician, and man of science. Often called the father of modern philosophy, Descartes rejected Aristotle’s proposal that knowledge is derived from the senses and promoted a ‘new science’ grounded in reason, observation, and experiment.
Born in La Haye, Touraine, Descartes introduced the notion of universal doubt. Aiming to reach secure foundations for knowledge, he began by attacking all his beliefs with skeptical doubts and considered all that was certain was his consciousness and therefore existence. This is summed up in his famous phrase, “Cogito ergo sum” (“l think, therefore I am.”)
Descartes founded the rationalist school of philosophy known as Cartesianism. He also founded analytic geometry, introduced the Cartesian coordinate system, and helped establish the science of optics. Descartes’s analytic geometry laid the groundwork of the calculus developed by Isaac Newton and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz.
Descartes also developed a metaphysical dualism that distinguishes radically between mind, the essence of which is, feeling, and reasoning, and matter, which is a physical entity that conforms to the laws of physics—like a machine.
Descartes expounded on his mathematical theories in his famous Discours de la Méthode (1637; Discourse on Method.) His notable works on philosophy include Meditationes de Prima Philosophia (1641; Meditations on the First Philosophy) and Principia Philosophiæ (1644; Principles of Philosophy.) Descartes’s methods of deduction and intuition enlighten modern metaphysics.
Descartes’s other philosophical works include Regufae ad directionem ingenii (Rules for the Direction of the Mind, composed in the 1620s, but unfinished and published posthumously in 1701) and Les Passions de f’ame (1649; Passions of the Soul.)
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Rene Descartes
One cannot conceive anything so strange and so implausible that it has not already been said by one philosopher or another.
—Rene Descartes
Topics: Philosophy
Thus even in the very example my critics produce, it is the intellect alone which corrects the error of the senses; and it is not possible to produce any case which error results from our trusting the operation of the mind more than the senses.
—Rene Descartes
Illusory joy is often worth more than genuine sorrow.
—Rene Descartes
It is not enough to have a good mind. The main thing is to use it well.
—Rene Descartes
Topics: Letters, Love, Thinking
We never understand a thing so well, and make it our own, as when we have discovered it for ourselves.
—Rene Descartes
Topics: Self-Discovery
Divide each difficulty into as many parts as is feasible and necessary to resolve it.
—Rene Descartes
Topics: Difficulty, Simplicity
In order to improve the mind, we ought less to learn, than to contemplate.
—Rene Descartes
Topics: Wisdom
The only secure knowledge is that I exist
—Rene Descartes
Topics: One liners, Philosophy
I am accustomed to sleep, and in my dreams to imagine the same things that lunatics imagine when awake.
—Rene Descartes
Topics: Sleep, Dreams
The reading of all good books is indeed like a conversation with the noblest men of past centuries who were the authors of them, nay a carefully studied conversation, in which they reveal to us none but the best of their thoughts.
—Rene Descartes
Topics: Reading, Wisdom, Learning
To know what people really think, pay regard to what they do, rather than what they say.
—Rene Descartes
Topics: Manners, Behavior
Except our own thoughts, there is nothing absolutely in our power.
—Rene Descartes
Topics: Thinking, Thoughts, Thought
Wondering Whom to Read Next?
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz German Philosopher, Mathematician
Thales of Miletus Greek Philosopher, Mathematician
Karl Popper Austrian-born British Philosopher
Baruch Spinoza Dutch Philosopher
Blaise Pascal French Philosopher, Scientist
Francis Bacon English Philosopher
John Locke English Philosopher
Anaxagoras Greek Philosopher
Jacques Derrida French Philosopher, Literary Theorist
Hilary Putnam American Philosopher