René Descartes (1596–650)—physicist, mathematician, and philosopher—is one of the founders of modern philosophy and a major transitional figure in Western intellectual history. Descartes, more than any of his predecessors, rejected ancient Greek ideas and laid the foundation for what would become modern philosophical thought.
Born in La Haye, France, Descartes was the son of a leading judge. The boy’s mother died when Descartes was only one year old, and he was raised primarily by his grandmother and great-uncle. Descartes graduated with a law degree from the university in Poitiers, joined the army at age twenty-two, and was stationed in Breda, a city in the Netherlands. (He left a year later, just avoiding a war with Spain.)
After traveling through Germany, the Netherlands, and Italy, Descartes settled in Paris. A prolific writer, he penned several scientific works on optics, meteorology, and math. In 1636, he moved to Leiden, a city in the Netherlands, where he published Meditations on First Philosophy, one of his best-known works.
In Descartes’ own words, his philosophy sought to “destroy the principles of Aristotle,” whose writings had been the bedrock of Western philosophy for two millennia. Aristotle had believed that everything in nature had a purpose—a telos—that determined its form. In contrast, Descartes believed a scientist should study only what was empirically observable—a school of thought that acquired the name rationalism.
Having become famous, Descartes corresponded with many of the leading luminaries of seventeenth-century Europe. Queen Christina of Sweden (1626–1689), one of his supporters, invited him to found a school in Stockholm, where he fell ill and died at age fifty-three.
ADDITIONAL FACTS
- One of the most famous quotations from Descartes is “Cogito ergo sum”—Latin for “I think, therefore I am”—which appeared in a 1644 book. The famous passage was written as a response to a philosophical debate about whether it is possible to know whether anything—even oneself—truly exists, or whether things only seem to exist.
- The remains of Descartes’ brain are kept at the Musée de l’Homme in Paris.
- The philosopher’s hometown, La Haye, was renamed Descartes in 1967.
