Descartes' philosophy summary
Since he thought that all truths were linked, Descartes searched for the explanation of the natural world by using a rational approach, by means of mathematics and science. This was similar to what Sir Francis Bacon had believed. His methodology of incorporating logic and mathematics with philosophy to elucidate the physical world became metaphysical when it dealt with theology questions.
This idea also contributed to the concept of dualism which was matter meeting non-matter. Descartes developed Cartesian analytical geometry, which is the use of algebra to examine geometric properties. Disclaimer Privacy Policy. Died: Feb 11, at age 53 , in Stockholm, Swedish Empire. Famous For: Developing the Cartesian coordinate system.
Descartes' ideas have had a profound impact on the development of modern philosophy. His emphasis on the primacy of reason, his method of doubt, and his mind-body dualism have shaped subsequent philosophical inquiry.
Summary of rene descartes biography mathematics
He is considered one of the founders of analytical philosophy and has inspired countless other thinkers throughout history. Rene Descartes French philosopher, mathematician, physicist, physiologist Date of Birth: Contact About Privacy. Birthdate: March 31, Death Date: February 11, Place of Death: Stockholm, Sweden. Fathers Name: Joachim.
Rene Descartes was born in an upper-class family which was also very well educated on March 31, , in the French village of La Haye en Touraine. The village is now known as Descartes, Indre-et-Loire in the honor of the man himself, Rene Descartes. Rene Descartes was well educated, beginning at a Jesuit institution at the age of eight and finishing with a law degree at the age of 22, but an important instructor put him on a path to apply mathematics and logic to understanding the natural world.
This method included a study on the essence of life and knowledge itself, leading to his most famous remark, "I think; therefore I am.
On March 31, , in La Haye en Touraine, a small town in Central France, Rene Descartes, Rene Descartes was born and after he passed away, the town in which he was born had now been renamed to his name. Rene Descartes was the youngest of all three children. After his mother died, Descarte's father, Joachim sent all his children to live with their maternal grandmother where Descarte grew up.
Local physicians predicted that he would die in infancy.
As an adult, he thought his nurse had saved his life, so he gave her a lifetime pension. Rene Descartes' father was very much concerned and always wanted to provide good education to Rene Descartes and that was the reason that he sent him to the boarding school at the age of Descartes was an excellent student, however, it is claimed that he was ill because he was not required to adhere to the school's hard schedule and was instead permitted to rest in bed until midmorning.
His studies in rhetoric and logic, as well as the mathematical arts, which encompassed music and astronomy, as well as metaphysics, natural philosophy, and ethics, prepared him well for a career as a philosopher. So did spending the following four years at the University of Poitiers getting a bachelor in law. Some historians believe he suffered a nervous breakdown during this time.
Rene Descartes after studying mathematics later added theology and medicine to his studies. He did it because he was curious about learning new things and ideologies. After gaining the knowledge he wanted from great books, he traveled and joined the army for a brief amount of time. During his time in the army, he saw few battles and as his resume was very good he was then introduced to the Dutch scientist and philosopher Isaac Beeckman who in the coming years turned out to be a teaching figure to Rene Descartes.
Descartes credited a sequence of three very intense dreams or visions with defining the path of his studies for the rest of his life a year after graduating from Poitiers. Many regard Descartes to be the father of modern philosophy since his views diverged significantly from prevailing knowledge in the early 17th century, which was more emotion-based.
While certain aspects of his thought were not entirely novel, his approach to them was.
Summary of rene descartes biography mathematics pdf
Descartes believed in removing everything from the table, all preconceived and inherited conceptions, and beginning again, gradually reintroducing the certain things, which for him began with the declaration "I exist. Rene Descartes from the beginning has believed that all the truths were at the end linked to each other.
He attempted to discover the meaning of the natural universe using a logical method based on science and mathematics, which was an extension of the approach advocated by Sir Francis Bacon in England a few decades before. Descartes also produced Meditations on First Philosophy and Principles of Philosophy, among other treatises, in addition to Discourse on the Method.
He assumes that the universe is filled with matter which, due to some initial motion, has settled down into a system of vortices which carry the sun, the stars, the planets and comets in their paths. Despite the problems with the vortex theory it was championed in France for nearly one hundred years even after Newton showed it was impossible as a dynamical system.
As Brewster, one of Newton 's 19 th century biographers, puts it:- Thus entrenched as the Cartesian system was The uninstructed mind could not readily admit the idea that the great masses of the planets were suspended in empty space, and retained their orbits by an invisible influence Pleasing as Descartes' theory was, even the supporters of his natural philosophy such as the Cambridge metaphysical theologian Henry More, found objections.
Summary of rene descartes biography mathematics book
Certainly More admired Descartes, writing:- I should look upon Des-Cartes as a man most truly inspired in the knowledge of Nature, than any that have professed themselves so these sixteen hundred years However between and they exchanged a number of letters in which More made some telling objections. Descartes however in his replies makes no concessions to More's points.
More went on to ask:- Why are not your vortices in the form of columns or cylinders rather than ellipses, since any point of the axis of a vortex is as it were a centre from which the celestial matter recedes with, as far as I can see, a wholly constant impetus? Who causes all the planets not to revolve in one plane the plane of the ecliptic?
And the Moon itself, neither in the plane of the Earth's equator nor in a plane parallel to this? In , the year his Meditations were published, Descartes visited France. He returned again in , when he met Pascal and argued with him that a vacuum could not exist, and then again in However the Queen wanted to draw tangents at 5 a. After only a few months in the cold northern climate, walking to the palace for 5 o'clock every morning, he died of pneumonia.
Only the first 21 of the Rules were presented, the last three being only given by their intended titles. Sadly, the original manuscript has been lost and only copies remain. Here is a short extract from the manuscript:- I would not value these Rules so highly if they were good only for solving those pointless problems with which arithmeticians and geometers are inclined to while away their time, for in that case all I could credit myself with achieving would be to dabble in trifles with greater subtlety than they.
I shall have much to say below about figures and numbers, for no other disciplines can yield illustrations as evident and certain as these. But if one attends closely to my meaning, one will readily see that ordinary mathematics is far from my mind here, that it is quite another discipline I am expounding, and that these illustrations are more its outer garments than its inner parts.
This discipline should contain the primary rudiments of human reason and extend to the discovery of truths in any field whatever. Frankly speaking, I am convinced that it is a more powerful instrument of knowledge than any other with which human beings are endowed, as it is the source of all the rest.
Summary of rene descartes biography: René Descartes (born March 31, , La Haye, Touraine, France—died February 11, , Stockholm, Sweden) was a French mathematician, scientist, and philosopher.
We should end this biography by saying a little more about Descartes as a person. In [ ] Langer describes Descartes' appearance and personality:- In appearance Descartes was a small man of rather slight figure with a large head. His nose was prominent, his lower lip somewhat protruding, his beard and moustache of a semi-military type, and his hair growing down upon his forehead almost to his eyebrows.
He wore a wig of natural colour to which he always gave fastidious attention, as he did also to his clothes which were now invariably of black cloth. In demeanour he was generally cheerful, rarely gay. His manners were always refined, gentle, and polite, and his temper tranquil and easy. As a personality he was proud, somewhat aristocratically reserved, sensitive, a bit angular, and, though a shade domineering, was pre-eminently obliging.
Bertrand Russell writes [ ] :- He always was well dressed, and wore a sword. He was not industrious; he worked short hours, and read little. When he went to Holland he took few books with him, but among them were the Bible and Thomas Aquinas. His work seems to have been done with great concentration during short periods; but perhaps, to keep up the appearance of a gentlemanly amateur, he may have pretended to work less than in fact he did, for otherwise his achievements seem scarcely credible.
References show. Biography in Encyclopaedia Britannica.
Rene descartes contributions
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Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, M Serfati and D Descotes eds. T Sorell, Descartes.