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Thinker · TH-0016

René Descartes

French philosopher and mathematician, educated at the Jesuit college of La Flèche, who spent most of his working life in the Dutch Republic. He…

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Also known as Descartes, Renatus Cartesius, Cartesius

1596 – 1650 · La Haye (Touraine), Netherlands, Stockholm

Traditions: Modern European

Schools: Rationalism

French philosopher and mathematician, educated at the Jesuit college of La Flèche, who spent most of his working life in the Dutch Republic. He sought a secure foundation for knowledge through methodical doubt and is often called the father of modern philosophy; he also founded analytic geometry.

Key ideas

  • Methodical doubt and the dream and demon hypotheses
  • The cogito: I think, therefore I am
  • Mind-body dualism: thinking and extended substance
  • Clear and distinct perception as a criterion of truth

Major works

  • Discourse on the Method (1637)
  • Meditations on First Philosophy (1641)
  • Principles of Philosophy (1644)
  • The Passions of the Soul (1649)

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