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• Rene Descartes was a French mathematician and philosopher who lived between 1596 and 1650. His major philosophical work was A Discourse on Method. He also developed Analytic Geometry, a precursor to Calculus.

• Fast Facts

  1. Birth Name: ReneDescartes
  2. Date of birth: March 31, 1596 in La Haye en Touraine, France
  3. Death: February 11, 1650
  4. School/tradition: Cartesianism, Rationalism, Foundationalism
  5. Main interests: Metaphysics, Epistemology, Science, Mathematics
  6. Notable ideas: Cogito ergo sum, method of doubt, Cartesian coordinate system, Cartesian dualism, ontological argument for existence of God; regarded as a founder of Modern philosophy
  7. Influenced by: Plato, Aristotle, Alhazen,Averroes, Avicenna, al-Ghazali, Anselm, St. Augustine, Aquinas, Ockham, Suarez, Mersenne, Sextus Empiricus, Michel de Montaigne, Duns Scotus
  8. Influenced: Spinoza, Hobbes, Arnauld, Malebranche, Pascal, Locke, Leibniz, More, Kant, Husserl, Brunschvicg, Chomsky, Stanley
  9. One of the key figures in the Scientific Revolution
  10. Introduced the phrase "I think, therefore I am" (in Latin: "Cogito, ergo sum")

• Famous For

  Descartes was a highly influential French philosopher, mathematician, scientist, and writer, and is regarded as the first modern thinker to provide a philosophical framework for the natural sciences. He was dubbed the "Father of Modern Philosophy," and much of Western philosophy is a response to his writings. Descartes founded analytic geometry, the bridge between algebra and geometry, crucial to the invention of calculus and analysis.

• Related Mahalo Pages

  History of France | Sir Isaac Newton | Johannes Kepler | Galileo | Gottfried Wilhelm Liebniz | Philosophy | Carl Linneaus

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