Rene Descartes

Rene Descartes was born on March 31, 1596 in La Haye Touraine, France. Descartes was considered a "jack of all trades", making major contributions to the areas of anatomy, cognitive science, optics, mathematics and philosophy. He has been referred to as the father of modern rationalism, soldier of fortune, scholar, pilgrim, traveler, and a firm adherent of the Roman Catholic faith.

He was educated at the Jesuit college of La Fleche in Anjou. He entered the college at the age of eight years, just a few months after the opening of the college in January, 1604. At La Fleche, Descartes formed the habit of spending the morning in bed. His health was poor and he was allowed to remain in bed until 11 o'clock in the morning. This habit and custom he maintained until the year of his death. While in bed he engaged in systematic meditation. During his meditations, he was struck by the sharp contrast between the certainty of mathematics and the controversial nature of philosophy. He came to believe that the sciences could be made to yield results as certain as those of mathematics. While at La Fleche he studied classics, logic and traditional Aristotelian philosophy. He also learned mathematics from the books of Clavius.

Descartes left La Fleche in 1612. He spent the next 16 years traveling, contemplating, and corresponding. School had made Descartes understand how little he knew. The only subject which was satisfactory in his eyes was mathematics. This idea became the foundation for his way of thinking, and was to form the basis for all his works. He spent some time in Paris; apparently keeping very much to himself. He studied at the University of Poitiers. He received a law degree from Poitiers in 1616. Immediately following his studies ...

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...tina of Sweden persuaded Descartes to go to Stockholm. The Queen insisted on receiving her instruction at 5 a.m. and Descartes broke his lifelong habit of getting up at 11 o'clock. After a few months in the cold northern climate and walking to the palace at 5 a.m., he contracted pneumonia. Within a week, the man who had given direction to mathematics and philosophy had died. By focusing on the problem of true and certain knowledge, Descartes had made epistemology, the question of the relationship between mind and world, the starting point of philosophy. By localizing the soul's contact with body in the pineal gland, Descartes had raised the question of the relationship of mind to the brain and nervous system. Yet at the same time, by drawing a radical distinction between body as extended and mind as pure thought, Descartes had paradoxically created intellectual chaos.