René+Descartes

> In 1642 his book entitled "Meditations" was published almost 3 years after he finished it
 * He was a French mathematician and philosopher
 * He was known as "The Father of Modern Philosophy"
 * Born in La Haye, Torraine in the year 1596
 * Died in Stockholm, Sweden in the year 1650
 * He initialized what is now known to be the rationalist movement
 * His most famous works "Discourse on Method" and "Meditations"
 * In medieval philosophy the teachers and professors of the time didnt indicate the differences in the theological and philosophical concerns
 * Rationalists denied teaching jobs to avoid persecution and to keep their integrity
 * Rene spent a great amount of time fighting against the ecclesaistical authorities about how the rationalists approach is compatible with the theological approach
 * His father served in the Parliament of Brittany
 * Rene was born of minor nobility
 * His mother died when he was one year old
 * He and his siblings were raised by their maternal grandmother
 * Enrolled in a Jesuit college that was set up for young nobility
 * He studied there for 8 years
 * He was a lazy student in his early years at the school
 * He thought that Literature and History were not completely true in what they taught
 * He thought that the only true subject was math
 * When he left college he was revered as a great thinker by his peers and professors
 * Served in the military from the year 1618 to 1628
 * Was present at the Battle of Prague and at a major battle in the Thirty Years War
 * Loved to travel and he always claimed to be looking for "A Beautiful woman, a good book, and a perfect preacher."
 * He perfected a way to show geometrical figures in an algebraic expression
 * He created most of his works in Holland
 * "Rules for the Direction of Mind" was his first major published work
 * In 1637he finished "Discourse on Mehtod"

René Descartes had always been a frail individual, and he would usually spend most of his mornings in bed, where he did most of his thinking, fresh from dreams in which he often had his revelations. In his latter years, Descartes had to relocate to Sweden to tutor Queen Christina in philosophy. Unfortunately, the Queen was an early riser who wanted her lessons at 5:00 o'clock in the morning. This new schedule did not help Descartes fragile health, and he contracted pneumonia, from which he died on February 11, 1650 at the age of 54.

In 1619 Descartes began serious work on mathematical and mechanical problems under Beekman’s guidance and, finally, left the service of Maurice of Nassau, planning to travel through Germany to join the army of Maximilian of Bavaria. It is during this year (1619) that Descartes was stationed at Ulm and had three dreams that inspired him to seek a new method for scientific inquiry and to envisage a unified science. Soon afterwards, in 1620, he began looking for this new method, starting but never completing several works on method, including drafts of the first eleven rules of //Rules for the Direction of the Mind//. Descartes worked on and off on it for years until it was finally abandoned for good in 1628. During this time, he also worked on other, more scientifically oriented projects such as optics. In the course of these inquiries, it is possible that he discovered the law of refraction as early as 1626. It is also during this time that Descartes had regular contact with Father Marin Mersenne, who was to become his long time friend and contact with the intellectual community during his 20 years in the Netherlands.

Descartes suggested that the body works like a machine, that it has the material properties of extension and motion, and that it follows the laws of physics. The mind (or soul), on the other hand, was described as a nonmaterial entity that lacks extension and motion, and does not follow the laws of physics. Descartes argued that only humans have minds, and that the mind interacts with the body at the pineal gland. This form of dualism or duality proposes that the mind controls the body, but that the body can also influence the otherwise rational mind, such as when people act out of passion. Most of the previous accounts of the relationship between mind and body had been uni-directional. Descartes suggested that the pineal gland is "the seat of the soul" for several reasons. First, the soul is unitary, and unlike many areas of the brain the pineal gland appears to be unitary (microscopic inspection reveals it is formed of two hemispheres). Second, Descartes observed that the pineal gland was located near the ventricles. He believed the animal spirits of the ventricles acted through the nerves to control the body, and that the pineal gland influenced this process. Finally, Descartes incorrectly believed that only humans have pineal glands, just as, in his view, only humans have minds. This led him to the belief that animals cannot feel pain, and Descartes' practice of vivisection (the dissection of live animals) became widely used throughout Europe until the Enlightenment. Cartesian Dualism set the agenda for philosophical discussion of themind-body problem for many years after Descartes' death. The question of how a nonmaterial mind could influence a material body, without invoking supernatural explanations, remains controversial to this day.

Amazingly, Descartes' theory provided the basis for the calculus of Newton and Leibniz, by applying infinitesimal calculus to thetangent line problem, thus permitting the evolution of that branch of modern mathematics.Descartes' rule of signs is also a commonly used method to determine the number of positive and negative zeros of a polynomial. Descartes created analytic goemetry, and discovered an early form of the law of conservation of momentum. He outlined his views on the universe in his Principles of Philosophy. Descartes also made contributions to the field of optics. He showed by using geometric construction and the the law of refraction (also known as Descartes' law) that the angular radius of a rainbow is 42 degrees (i.e. the angle subtended at the eye by the edge of the rainbow and the ray passing from the sun through the rainbow's centre is 42°). He also independently discovered the law of reflection, and his essay on optics was the first published mention of this law. One of Descartes most enduring legacies was his development of Cartesian Geometry which uses algebra to describe geometry. He also invented the notation which uses superscripts to show the powers or exponents, for example the 2 used in x² to indicate squaring.

Sources: www.renedescartes.com the McGraw Hill Encyclopedia of World Biography: Edition 3 [|www.iep.utm.edu/d/descarte.htm] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Descartes

The Script

For my Project I had Rene Descarte and he was a French mathematician and philosopher. He was born in La Haye, Torraine in the year 1596. His mother died when he was one year old and he was raised by his maternal grandmother. His father served in the Parliament of Brittany. This made Rene minor nobility. He enrolled in a Jesuit school that was set up for the nobility. He was a lazy student in his early days and was a renowned slacker around the campus. But after a few years he turned himself around and after 8 years of study he graduated and his peers and professors revered him as a great thinker. He is now known as “The Father of Modern Philosophy” and he believed that the only true subject in school was math because he thought that literature and history was conformed of half truths and flat out lies. He served in the military and was present at the Battle of Prague and he was present at a major battle in The Thirty Years War. He served from 1618 to 1628 and then he began to travel around Europe in search of “A beautiful woman, a good book and, a perfect preacher.” Rene loved to travel and it was documented that traveling was always a pleasure of his. In his later years is when he settled down to write his works and to compose his thoughts. “Rules For the Direction of Mind” was his first major work after he settled down and his next work was the “Discourse on Method”. He died in Stockholm, Sweden in the year 1650. His works are still used today in modern philosophy. He is a world renowned author and was a great thinker of his time.

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