René Descartes

"Cogito ergo sum"


Background

  • French mathematician, philosopher & author 
  • Lived 17th century Dutch Republic
  • Was a bit of a rebel; differed from his predescessors

PHILOSOPHY

  • Dualism; mind and body
  • Rationalism with doubt
  • Foundationalism with certainty

Discourse on the Method

  • Philosophical & autobiographical treatise
  • Published in 1637
  • 6 sections cover wide range of topics
  • Includes morals and maxims
  • Incorporates God into metaphysics
  • Tackled the problem of skepticism
  • The truth is incontrovertible, and all truths are linked

    Principles of PHILOSOPHY

    • Synopsis of Discourse & Meditations
    • Basically a precursor to Newton's Laws of Motion
    • Concept of philosophy; only God is perfectly wise
    • Degrees of knowledge; 4 levels along with a higher 5th
    • Tree model of philosophy
      • Roots are metaphysics
      • Trunk is physics
      • Branches are other sciences
      • Fruits are the wisdom of philosophy

      Mathematical legacy

      • Heavily impacted mathematics
      • Ideas and concepts still used to this day
      • Based off of Euclid and Aristotle
      • Work gave others a platform to invent new maths
       
      The Cartesian plane goes beyond math
      La Géométrie establishes geometric principles

      Descartes Rule of Sines

      • Determine the number of + & - real roots of a polynomial
      • Genius piece of work saved time on my math test
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