Rene Descartes Accomplishments

René Descartes was born in a village near Tours in France in 1596. At the age of eight years, he entered the Jesuit College La Flèche in Anjou, where he would study classics, logic, and Aristotelian philosophy, as well as mathematics from the books of Clavius. He is also known as the “Father of Modern Philosophy”.

Rene Descartes was the first great philosopher of the modern era, He had a new approach which was focused on scientific and mathematical truths. Descartes came to reject the scholastic tradition, one of which he was educated, due to his pursuit of mathematical and scientific truth. Much of Descartes work was done to secure advancement of human knowledge through the use of the natural sciences. His radical and unorthodox philosophy went against the church but Descartes managed to cautiously express his radical work in its entirety.

As René Descartes was fundamentally a scientist and mathematician, his work in the philosophical realm reflects this, existing almost solely to create an earth describable by these disciplines. The church was the dominant force – both spiritually and temporally – during Descartes lifetime, and was one of the great hubs of scientific learning. This power from the Vatican gave a distinctly religious air to the science of the time. Descartes appears to respond to this in Meditations on First Philosophy; his seminal work created a framework for quasi-modern science to exist in an era dominated by religion. In separating the Mind from the Body, Descartes’ theory allowed for the [required] existence of God through the immaterial nature of the Mind, yet carved a distinctly temporal path for science in the material nature of the body and earth. His goal in Meditations was to cleave the world much as he would come to divide the body. Descartes saw two general forms of substance, a temporal, material substance which comprised the Body and earth, and a spiritual substance of thought which constituted the Mind and the heavens. He believed that all temporal and material substance could be scientifically examined and described, yet his path to true scientific inquiry was blocked by the immaterial and spiritual substance. He rationalized that the only

6.Rene Descartes, in his book Meditations on First Philosophy, attempts to discern where it is that human ‘error’ comes from, given the existence of a God and the relationship that exists between human beings and God through the act of ‘thinking’ properly. Descartes, in previous mediations, has established at the beginning of the fourth meditation that he himself is a thinking thing and that it is his ability to the think that provides him with proof of his own existence. The crux of what error is, according to Descartes (2009, 55), is presented in Meditation number IV. Descartes recognizes that he is capable of being aware of a perfect godlike being and, at the same time being aware of nothingness or non-existence. It is in being between these two states, for Descartes, that error occurs. According to Descartes, the intellect is capable of coming up with ideas, and in so far as it is capable of doing this, it does not contain error. Error occurs when the will attempts to work

Rene Descartes was a French philosopher in the 17th century. Descartes was not pleased with what philosophy was based on in during this time in history. He took it upon himself to raise questions in the world of philosophy. He questioned well known beliefs and beliefs held by many, not just philosophers. In his meditations, he explains his process of emptying his mind and starting completely over. In this paper, I am going to evaluate and question his thoughts on philosophy, use his writing to raise questions about my own beliefs, and compare his thoughts to my own.

Gilbert Ryle sees that Descartes divides a person’s life into two halves, one being external and the other being internal. Every physical thing, including the body, belong to the external half and physical world, while the

René Descartes was born in 1596 and died in 1650. Throughout his life he studied philosophy, mathematics and science. In philosophy he was greatly known for his work Meditations of First Philosophy, and in Mathematics and science he is known for the Cartesian Coordinate System. Focusing on Meditations of First Philosophy, this book was published in 1641 and is made up of six meditations. These meditations reflect on the existence of man and god, and provided the reasoning behind Descartes thoughts and ideas. Taking a look at the third, fourth, and fifth meditations, it is clear that reason derives its authority from God.

Descartes doubts himself on weather or not he really exists. Descartes, questions if his mind and body are the same or if they are different. When Descartes explains himself he states that he is “nothing but a thinking thing.” Descartes is not sure if he is really a human or if he is just a thing that goes with life each day that it passes by. With the many thoughts that come in Descartes mind he does not seem to know if it is him, God, or an evil demon putting them inside of his mind. Descartes then comes to realization that if he thinks he has to exist in life his thoughts are his own and not someone else’s.

Rene Descartes most known for his saying "I think, therefore I am.", can be described as a French mathematician, scientist, and a philosopher. He was born in France on March 31, 1596 and he died in Stockholm, Sweden on February 11, 1650. His parents were Jeanne Brochard and Joachim Descartes. His mother died before Descartes' first birthday. His father was a council member who had no time for his family and therefore sent Descartes and his siblings to live with their grandmother (Smith). However, Descartes' father was obsessed with his children receiving a thorough education; therefore, he sent Rene Descartes to a boarding school at the Jesuit college of Henry IV when Descartes was eight years old. It has been speculated that while Rene Descartes

Rene Descartes was born on March 31, 1569 in a small French town called La Haye en Touraine. Descartes's mother died when he was at the age of one, and grew up with his father and two older siblings. His father allowed him to get agreat education at a bording school, giving Descartes the foundation needed for his multiple contributions and discovories. As he got older, he joined the army for a short period of time. During this time Descartes met one of his most influential teachers that he would ever have; Isaac Beekman. Growing in age, Descartes became more and more curious. He made an effort to solve certain questions that he had by throwing out all previous conceptions of these certain questions and start fresh. By using this technique,

An important man named Rene Descartes (1596-1650) was a great Philosopher. He was born in France on March 31, 1596. He was a pupil of Jesuit from 1604 to 1612. He studied mathematical principles that can be applied to all sciences which produces a certainty of knowledge. His most important work for development of modern psychology was his attempt to resolve the mind-body problem. Descartes viewed the mind and body as different essences. This theory was that the mind influenced the body but the body exerts a great influence on the mind than was previously thought (Schultz, et al. 2012).

René Descartes was a mathematician who lived from March 31 1596-February 11 1650. Descartes was from the commune La Haye in northeastern France. His father was a member of the Parliament of Brittany and René grew up without his mother because she died giving birth to another child who also died. René eventually had one daughter, with a serving woman, named Francine. He passed Francine off as his niece until she died of scarlet fever at five years old.

With the emergence of the scientific revolution in the 17th century, views of society and nature were transformed throughout Europe. There were great developments in mathematics, physics, astronomy, biology, and chemistry. The world and its views were changing, and with that change, came a new change in thought, a new change in philosophy. Apart from ancient Greek philosophy, which was centered on finding order in a vast variety of things by searching for a fundamental amalgamating principle, Descartes sought to establish order via some fundamental division. Descartes understands and expresses that what we know about our mind is more definite than what we know about the world outside our mind. Descartes’

Rene Descartes is the sole reason teenagers have to sit through fifteen days of mind corrosive and non-existent scenarios that adults will likely never encounter. The lack of visual representations of mathematical equations would prevent us from discovering and mass producing ninety-five percent of retail. Descartes had a wealthy background in the spring starting off his life, given his family was separated by death. He has portrayed ideas relating to the fundamentals of algebra and philosophy that give and easier way of describing how mechanisms work. The world is in debt of the research of Descartes’ professions and without his work we would be in a divided, class based society.

To begin with, I’d like to elaborate on the important material relating to each philosopher. Descartes argument for personal identity lied on the what's in our minds rather than the body. He felt that the mind was an undervalued component in considering human identity. Descartes perspective on the body was akin “To each substance there belongs one principal attribute... in the case of body it is extension”(Reference 1).This is highlighted by descartes famous quote during his philosophical career, “‘I think therefore I am’” (Reference 3). Therefore due to a lack of ability for the body to think or participate in his definition of thought, he believed it did not properly reflect an individual's true personality.