RENÉ DESCARTES
(31 March 1596 – 11 February 1650)
a French philosopher, mathematician, scientist, and writer
who spent most of his adult life in the Dutch Republic. He
has been dubbed the "Father of Modern Philosophy.“
Descartes' influence in mathematics is also apparent, the
Cartesian coordinate system allowing geometric shapes to
be expressed in algebraic equations being named for him.
He is accredited as the father of analytical geometry.
Descartes was also one of the key figures in the
Scientific Revolution
Descartes was a major figure in 17th century
continental rationalism, later advocated by
Baruch Spinoza and Gottfried Leibniz, and
opposed by the empiricist school of thought
consisting of Hobbes, Locke, Berkeley, and Hume.
LIFE
Descartes was born in La Haye en Touraine (now
Descartes), Indre-et-Loire, France.
His mother Jeanne Brochard died of tuberculosis. His
father Joachim was a member in the provincial
parliament.
At the age of eleven, he entered the Jesuit Collège
Royal Henry-Le-Grand at La Flèche. After graduation,
he studied at the University of Poitiers, earning a
Baccalauréat and Licence in law in 1616, in accordance
with his father's wishes that he should become a lawyer.
In the summer of 1618 he joined the army of
Maurice of Nassau in the Dutch Republic.
On 10 November 1618, while walking through Breda,
Descartes met Isaac Beeckman, who sparked his interest in
mathematics and the new physics, particularly the problem
of the fall of heavy bodies.
While in the service of the Duke Maximilian of Bavaria,
Descartes was present at the Battle of the White Mountain
outside Prague, in November 1620.
In 1622 he returned to France, and during the next few
years spent time in Paris and other parts of Europe.
He arrived in La Haye in 1623, selling all of his
property, investing this remuneration in bonds which
provided Descartes with a comfortable income for the
rest of his life.
Descartes was present at the siege of La Rochelle by
Cardinal Richelieu in 1627.
He returned to the Dutch Republic in 1628, where
he lived until September 1649.
In April 1629 he joined the University of Franeker
and the next year, under the name "Poitevin", he
enrolled at the Leiden University to study
mathematics with Jacob Golius and astronomy with
Martin Hortensius.
In October 1630 he had a falling out with Beeckman,
whom he accused of plagiarizing some of his ideas
(though the situation was more likely the reverse).
In Amsterdam, he had a relationship with a servant
girl, Helène Jans, with whom he had a daughter,
Francine, who was born in 1635 in Deventer, at
which time Descartes taught at the
Utrecht University.
In 1633, Galileo was condemned by the
Roman Catholic Church, and Descartes abandoned
plans to publish Treatise on the World, his work of the
previous four years.
"Discourse on the Method" was published in 1637. In
it an early attempt at explaining reflexes
mechanistically is made. Descartes also lays out four
rules of thought, meant to ensure that our knowledge
rests upon a firm foundation.
. In 1643, Cartesian philosophy was condemned at
the University of Utrecht, and Descartes began his
long correspondence with
Princess Elizabeth of Bohemia.
In 1647, he was awarded a pension by the
King of France. Descartes was interviewed by
Frans Burman at Egmond-Binnen in 1648.
René Descartes died on 11 February 1650 in
Stockholm, Sweden, where he had been invited as
a teacher for Queen Christina of Sweden.
In 1663, the Pope placed his works on the
Index of Prohibited Books.
Philosophical work
Descartes is often regarded as the first modern
thinker to provide a philosophical framework for
the natural sciences as these began to develop.
In his Discourse on the Method he attempts to
arrive at a fundamental set of principles that one
can know as true without any doubt.
To achieve this, he employs a method called
hyperbolical/metaphysical doubt, sometimes also
referred to as methodological skepticism: he rejects
any ideas that can be doubted, and then
reestablishes them in order to acquire a firm
foundation for genuine knowledge.
Initially, Descartes arrives at only a single
principle: thought exists. Thought cannot be
separated from me, therefore, I exist.
Most famously, this is known as cogito ergo sum
( "I think, therefore I am"). Therefore, Descartes
concluded, if he doubted, then something or
someone must be doing the doubting, therefore the
very fact that he doubted proved his existence.
"The simple meaning of the phrase is that if one is
skeptical of existence, that is in and of itself proof that
he does exist."
But in what form? He perceives his body through the
use of the senses; however, these have previously been
proven unreliable. So Descartes concludes that the
only indubitable knowledge is that he is a thinking
thing. Thinking is his essence as it is the only thing
about him that cannot be doubted.
Descartes defines "thought" (cogitatio) as "what
happens in me such that I am immediately
conscious of it, insofar as I am conscious of it".
Thinking is thus every activity of a person of which
he is immediately conscious.
To further demonstrate the limitations of the senses,
Descartes proceeds with what is known as the Wax
Argument.
… in order to properly grasp the nature of the wax, he
cannot use the senses. He must use his mind. Descartes
concludes:
“And so something which I thought I was seeing
with my eyes is in fact grasped solely by the faculty of
judgment which is in my mind.”
Descartes proceeds to construct a system of
knowledge, discarding perception as unreliable and
instead admitting only deduction as a method.
In Descartes' system, knowledge takes the form of
ideas, and philosophical investigation is the
contemplation of these ideas.
. As a result of his Cartesian doubt, he viewed
rational knowledge as being "incapable of being
destroyed" and sought to construct an unshakable
ground upon which all other knowledge can be
based.
The first item of unshakable knowledge that
Descartes argues for is the aforementioned cogito,
or thinking thing.
Dualism
Descartes suggested that the body works like a
machine, that it has the material properties of
extension and motion, and that it follows the laws
of physics.
The mind (or soul), on the other hand, was
described as a nonmaterial entity that lacks
extension and motion, and does not follow the laws
of physics.
Descartes argued that only humans have minds, and
that the mind interacts with the body at the
pineal gland.
This form of dualism or duality proposes that the
mind controls the body, but that the body can also
influence the otherwise rational mind, such as
when people act out of passion.
the pineal gland is "the seat of the soul"
First, the soul is unitary, and unlike many areas of the
brain the pineal gland appeared to be unitary. (now
doubtful)
Second, Descartes observed that the pineal gland was
located near the ventricles. He believed the animal spirits
of the ventricles acted through the nerves to control the
body, and that the pineal gland influenced this process.
Finally, Descartes incorrectly believed that only
humans have pineal glands, just as, in his view,
only humans have minds.
Cartesian dualism set the agenda for philosophical
discussion of the mind-body problem for many
years after Descartes' death.
Mathematical legacy
Descartes' theory provided the basis for the calculus of
Newton and Leibniz, by applying infinitesimal calculus to
the tangent line problem, thus permitting the evolution of
that branch of modern mathematics.
Descartes' rule of signs is also a commonly used method to
determine the number of positive and negative roots of a
polynomial.
Descartes created analytic geometry, and discovered an early
form of the law of conservation of momentum.
Descartes also made contributions to the field of optics. He
showed by using geometric construction and the
law of refraction (also known as Descartes' law) that the
angular radius of a rainbow is 42.
He also independently discovered the law of reflection, and
his essay on optics was the first published mention of this law.
One of Descartes most enduring legacies was his development
of Cartesian geometry which uses algebra to describe
geometry. He also invented the notation which uses
superscripts to show the powers or exponents, for example the
2 used in x2 to indicate squaring.
Religious beliefs
He claimed to be a devout Roman Catholic,
claiming that one of the purposes of the
Meditations was to defend the Christian faith.
However, in his own era, Descartes was accused of
harboring secret deist or atheist beliefs.
Writings
1618. Compendium Musicae. A treatise on music theory and the
aesthetics of music written for Descartes' early collaborator Isaac
Beeckman.
1626–1628. Regulae ad directionem ingenii (
Rules for the Direction of the Mind). Incomplete. First published
posthumously in 1684. The best critical edition, which includes
an early Dutch translation, is edited by Giovanni Crapulli (The
Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1966).
1630–1633. Le Monde (The World) and L'Homme (Man).
Descartes' first systematic presentation of his natural philosophy.
Man was first published in Latin translation in 1662; The World
in 1664.
1637. Discours de la méthode (Discourse on the Method). An
introduction to the Essais, which include the Dioptrique, the
Météores and the Géométrie.
1637. La Géométrie (Geometry). Descartes' major work in
mathematics. There is an English translation by Michael Mahoney
(New York: Dover, 1979).
1641. Meditationes de prima philosophia (
Meditations on First Philosophy), also known as Metaphysical
Meditations. In Latin; a French translation, probably done without
Descartes' supervision, was published in 1647. Includes six
Objections and Replies. A second edition, published the following
year, included an additional objection and reply, and a Letter to Dinet.
1644. Principia philosophiae (Principles of Philosophy), a
Latin textbook at first intended by Descartes to replace the
Aristotelian textbooks then used in universities. A French
translation, Principes de philosophie by Claude Picot, under
the supervision of Descartes, appeared in 1647 with a letter-
preface to Queen Christina of Sweden.
1647. Notae in programma (Comments on a Certain
Broadsheet). A reply to Descartes' one-time disciple
Henricus Regius.
1647. The Description of the Human Body. Published
posthumously.
1648. Responsiones Renati Des Cartes… (Conversation with
Burman). Notes on a Q&A session between Descartes and Frans
Burman on 16 April 1648. Rediscovered in 1895 and published
for the first time in 1896. An annotated bilingual edition (Latin
with French translation), edited by Jean-Marie Beyssade, was
published in 1981 (Paris: PUF).
1649. Les passions de l'âme (Passions of the Soul). Dedicated to
Princess Elizabeth of Bohemia.
1657. Correspondence. Published by Descartes' literary executor
Claude Clerselier. The third edition, in 1667, was the most
complete; Clerselier omitted, however, much of the material
pertaining to mathematics.
DISCOURSE ON METHOD
PRINCIPAL IDEAS
1. The Proper method for philosophy is as follows:
Never accept any idea as true that is not
clearly and distinctly beyond doubt; divide
each complex question into simple, basic
questions; proceed from the simple to the
complex; review all steps in reasoning.
2. If this method is put into practice, there seems to be
no proposition that cannot be doubted except the
following:
I think, therefore I am. (Cogito, ergo sum)
3. As thinking substance, I have the idea of God;
and because the idea of a perfect being could not
have been derived from my own experience or
being, God must exist as the source of my idea.
4. Furthermore, imperfect and dependent beings could
exist unless there were a perfect being, God , who made
their existence possible; in addition, God by his very
nature exists, for if God did not exist of necessity, he
would not be perfect.
5. God provides the ground for people’s knowledge about
the external world if people are careful to accept as true
only those ideas that are clearly and distinctly beyond
doubt once the reliability of the senses and of the reason
can be seen to be derived from God.
MEDITATIONS ON FIRST PHILOSOPHY
PRINCIPAL IDEAS:
1. Perhaps everything one believes is false.
2. there seems to be no way of avoiding the
skeptical consequences of systematic doubt.
3. if one is doubting, one exists; and this is the
starting point for a philosophy based on certainty.
5. if one exists, one is a thinker, a mind; and
because one conceives of a God whose conception
is beyond one’s powers, there must be such a being.
If God exists, then one can count on one’s sense
experience and one’s reason, provided one is
careful to believe only what is clearly and distinctly
true.
