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Modern era · 1596–1650
René Descartes
The father of modern philosophy
Rationalism
Biography
French mathematician and philosopher, educated by Jesuits, he served as a soldier and lived long in Holland. He founded analytic geometry and died in Stockholm at the court of Queen Christina.
Worldview
Knowledge must be rebuilt from its foundations through methodical doubt; the first certainty is the cogito. Reality divides into thinking substance and extended substance; God guarantees the truth of clear and distinct ideas. Nature is mechanism.
Core positions
- I think, therefore I am
- Mind and body are distinct substances
- Animals are automata
- God does not deceive
Major works
- Discourse on Method
- Meditations on First Philosophy
- Principles of Philosophy
- The Passions of the Soul
Debate style
Methodical and deductive: evidence, analysis, synthesis, enumeration. Distrusts the senses and tradition.
Suspends judgement on every doubtful premise and asks what certainty remains; sharply separates mind and body.
Vocabulary
cogitomethodical doubtclear and distinct ideasres cogitansres extensamethodevil demon
Known disagreements
- Baruch Spinoza — Spinoza denies the dualism of substances
- Martin Heidegger — Heidegger criticises the subject cut off from the world
- Ludwig Wittgenstein — The private language of the cogito is problematic