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René Descartes
Portrait after Frans Hals, 1648.[1]
Full name	René Descartes
Born	March 31, 1596 La Haye en Touraine (renamed Descartes), Indre-et-Loire, France
Died	February 11, 1650 (aged 53) Stockholm, Sweden
Era	17th-century philosophy
Region	Western Philosophy
School	Cartesianism, Rationalism,Foundationalism
Main interests	Metaphysics, Epistemology,Science, Mathematics
Notable ideas	Cogito ergo sum, method of doubt,Cartesian coordinate system,Cartesian dualism, ontological argument for the existence of God; regarded as a founder ofModern philosophy
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Part of a series on René Descartes

Cartesianism

Rationalism

Foundationalism

Doubt & Certainty

Dream argument

Cogito ergo sum

Trademark argument

Mind-body dichotomy

Analytic geometry

Coordinate system

Cartesian circle

Folium

Rule of signs

Cartesian diver

Balloonist theory

Works

The World

Discourse on the Method

La Géométrie

Meditations on First Philosophy

Principles of Philosophy

Passions of the Soul

Notable People

Christina of Sweden

Baruch Spinoza

Gottfried Leibniz

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René Descartes (French pronunciation: [ʁəne dekaʁt]), (31 March 1596 – 11 February 1650), also known as Renatus Cartesius(Latinized form),^[2] was a French philosopher,mathematician, physicist, and writer who spent most of his adult life in the Dutch Republic. 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 to this day. In particular, hisMeditations on First Philosophy continues to be a standard text at most university philosophy departments. Descartes' influence in mathematics is also apparent; theCartesian coordinate system—allowing geometric shapes to be expressed in algebraic equations—was named after him. He is credited as the father of analytical geometry. Descartes was also 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, Descartes goes so far as to assert that he will write on this 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 ofcorporeal substance into matter and form; second, he rejects any appeal to ends—divine or natural—in explaining natural phenomena.^[3] In his theology, he insists on the absolute freedom of God’s act of creation.

Descartes was a major figure in 17th-century continentalrationalism, later advocated by Baruch Spinoza andGottfried Leibniz, and opposed by the empiricist school of thought consisting of Hobbes, Locke, Berkeley, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and Hume. Leibniz, Spinoza and Descartes were all well 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 discovery of infinitesimal calculus and analysis. He is best known for the philosophical statement "Cogito ergo sum" (French: Je pense, donc je suis; English: I think, therefore I am; or I am thinking, therefore I exist), found in part IV ofDiscourse on the Method (1637 - written in French but with inclusion of "Cogito ergo sum") and §7 of part I of Principles of Philosophy (1644 - written in Latin).

 Biography

Graduation registry for Descartes at theCollège Royal Henry-Le-Grand, La Flèche, 1616

Descartes was born in La Haye en Touraine(nowDescartes),Indre-et-Loire,France. When he was one year old, his mother Jeanne Brochard died. His father Joachim was a member in the provincial parliament. Around the age of eleven, he entered the Jesuit Collège Royal Henry-Le-Grand at La Flèche.^[4] After graduation, he studied at the University of Poitiers, earning aBaccalauréat and Licence in law in 1616, in accordance with his father's wishes

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