Descartes' contribution to modern philosophy

Profile of Rene Descartes

Rene Descartes was born in 1596 and died in 1650. He was a French philosopher and scientist who had major achievements during the seventeenth century. Most people know the Cartesian plane, on which they draw graphs of algebraic formulas, but few know that he was named René Descartes as an honor, for his contribution to the birth of analytic geometry. The latter had also conducted studies in optics, astronomy and medicine. However, his fame is mainly due to the revolution he led in philosophy. He was the son of a councilor of the parliament of Brittany and he lost his mother at the age of one year. He studied under the direction of the Jesuits. The teacher was very impressed with the condemnation of Galileo by the Inquisition in 1633 and published his first works under cover of anonymity. Fearing intolerance, he took refuge in Holland for twenty years, a country known for its openness. Throughout its existence, Descartes continued to face many intellectual debates against the dominant philosophy (scholasticism) and lead a fairly active social life, as evidenced by his correspondence. He gave courses in philosophy to Queen Christina of Sweden. This is the harsh climate of this country, coupled with declining health, which became the cause of his death (Descartes, 62).

Major works of Descartes

The two most important philosophical works of Descartes are undoubtedly the Discourse on the Method of rightly conducting the reason and seeking truth in the sciences in 1637 and Meditations concerning the first philosophy in which the existence of God and the real distinction between soul and body of man are demonstrated. The Discourse on Method surprised by its brevity and also by the fact that it first got published in French. Any self-respecting philosophy was published in Latin, and all scholars thoroughly mastered this dead language which was used as a universal language of science. However, Descartes had accessibility and was wary of heavy filled with treated complex arguments and sophistry (Thompson, 58).

The Discourse on Method developed by Descartes

It is found in the speech explaining the doubt and methodical statement of the first indubitable truth of his philosophy: "I think, therefore, I am". Descartes finds first that all the sciences of his time were unsure of themselves, and their truths were very fragile. Then, he asks that the reality may well be only a dream. As all these ideas are bad, they should be regarded as if they were false, for fear of falling into error. His systematic doubt seems to take people to the most extreme skepticism. Hence, many people find that the first truth apodictic was clear and, irrefutable was the basis of his philosophy. Thus, the method of doubt takes people to certainty. Descartes were confident that this idea can be understood and accepted by all, because they all had reasons or common sense. This can be said as an ability to distinguish right from wrong and good from evil. The problem of humanity lies in the fact that many people do not serve well in the ...