Discourse on the Method (Discours de la méthode) (1637)
Autobiographical account of his method, written in French; contains "je pense, donc je suis"
Philosophy
René Descartes
1596–1650 · French
Rationalism; Scientific Revolution
French philosopher, mathematician and scientist, often called the father of modern philosophy. Seeking certain foundations for knowledge, he used methodical doubt to arrive at "I think, therefore I am" and argued that mind and body are distinct substances. He also founded analytic geometry, giving his name to Cartesian coordinates.
How to spot them
- ▸Cogito, ergo sum / je pense, donc je suis
- ▸Methodical doubt, the evil demon (malin génie) and the wax argument
- ▸Res cogitans and res extensa; the pineal gland; mind–body dualism
- ▸Cartesian coordinates; died in Stockholm at the court of Queen Christina
Key works
La Géométrie (1637)
Appendix to the Discourse that founded analytic (coordinate) geometry
Meditations on First Philosophy (Meditationes de Prima Philosophia) (1641)
Six meditations moving from radical doubt to God's existence and the distinction of mind and body; published with objections and replies
Principles of Philosophy (Principia Philosophiae) (1644)
Latin textbook of his whole system; contains the formulation "ego cogito, ergo sum"
The Passions of the Soul (Les Passions de l'âme) (1649)
Treatise on the emotions, prompted by his correspondence with Princess Elisabeth of Bohemia
Key ideas
- Method of doubt: suspend any belief that can possibly be doubted – the senses, the waking world (dream argument), even mathematics (evil demon) – to find a certain foundation
- The cogito: the very act of doubting or thinking proves that I exist, as a thinking thing
- Substance dualism: mind (res cogitans, thinking thing) and body (res extensa, extended thing) are distinct substances, which he held interact via the pineal gland
- Clear and distinct perceptions are true because a perfect, non-deceiving God guarantees them – criticised as the "Cartesian circle"
- Trademark argument: my idea of an infinite, perfect God can only have been caused by God; he also offers an ontological argument
- Wax argument: the essence of a body (extension) is grasped by the intellect, not the senses
Quick-fire facts
- •Educated at the Jesuit college of La Flèche
- •Spent most of his productive life in the Dutch Republic
- •He withheld his treatise The World (Le Monde) after Galileo's condemnation in 1633
- •The Meditations appeared with objections from Hobbes, Gassendi, Arnauld and Mersenne, among others, together with Descartes's replies
- •He died in Stockholm in February 1650, having gone to instruct Queen Christina of Sweden
- •The Latin "ego cogito, ergo sum" appears in the Principles of Philosophy; the Discourse has the French "je pense, donc je suis"
- •He dated his philosophical vocation to three dreams on the night of 10 November 1619, in Germany
Drill it — 10 cards
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Sources
- Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy — René Descartes
- Anthony Kenny — A New History of Western Philosophy