Descartes
RENÉ (dā-kart'), a French philosopher and mathematician . with whom the modern or new philosophy is often considered as beginning; born in La Haye, in Touraine, March 31 , 1596.
He was educated at the Jesuit College of La Flèche, where he showed great talent. He entered the military profession and served in Holland and in Bavaria. In 1621 he left the army, and RENE DESCARTES after a variety of travels finally settled in Holland, and devoted himself to philosophical inquiries. Descartes, seeing the errors and inconsistencies in which other philosophers had involved themselves, determined to build up a system anew for himself, and resolving to acto асcept as true only what could stand the test of reason. There was one thing that he could not doubt or divest himself of the belief of, and that was the existence of himself as a thinking being, and this ultimate certainty he expressed in the celebrated phrase, "Cogito, ergo sum" (I think, therefore I am). Starting from this point, Descartes found the same kind of certainty in such propositions as these: that the thinking being DESCENT or soul differs from the body (whose existence consists in space and extension) by its simplicity and immateriality and by the freedom that pertains to it; that every perception of the soul is not distinct; that it is so far an imperfect finite being; that this imperfection of its own leads it to the idea of an absolutely perfect being; and from this last idea he deduces all further knowledge of the truth. Descartes also contributed greatly to the advancement of mathematics and physics. His system of the universe attracted great attention in his time, though long since exploded. His works effected a great revolution in the principles and methods of philosophizing. In 1647 the French court granted him a pension and two years later, on the invitation of Christina of Sweden, he went to Stockholm, where he died, Feb. 11, 1650.