Born March 31 in La Haye, in Touraine, France, the third child of a councillor of the parliament of Brittany, Descartes has often been described as the father of modern philosophy. He was educated at the Jesuit college of La Flèche, where he studied until 1612, with his last years at the college given to the study of logic, philosophy, and mathematics. While Descartes later wrote affectionately of his Jesuit teachers, he was dissatisfied with his instruction because he felt it mainly transmitted received opinions of the ancient philosophers and lacked a solid foundation. Mathematics, which played such a pivotal role in Descartes' philosophical development, was the one exception. In it he found the certainty and clarity he sought. In 1618, seeking knowledge that would be useful for life, Descartes enlisted in the army of Prince Maurice of Nassau, though he left the following year for Germany and joined the army of Maximilian of Bavaria. While stationed at Neuberg on the Danube, during periods of secluded reflection Descartes began laying the foundation for his philosophy. On November 10, 1619, he had three consecutive dreams or visions that apparently revealed to him that his life's work was to seek truth through reason. Further military service took to Bohemia and Hungary, followed by travels in Silesia, northern germany, the Netherlands, and Italy. For several years, he resided in Paris, but he found life in the city distracting and in 1628 retired to Holland where, except for visits to France, he remained until 1649. In that year, he reluctantly accepted an invitation by Queen Christina of Sweden to go to Stockholm and instruct her in philosophy. While there, he caught pneumonia and died on February daughter, Francine, whose death in September 1640 at the age of five was a severe blow to him. He was known as a moderate, kindly man who was generous to his servants and attendants.
Descartes was the founder of the branch of geometry known as analytic geometry, which represents points in relation to a system of coordinates, such as the Cartesian coordinates that were named after Descartes. Descartes' analytic geometry, introduced in 1637, were crucial to the development of Sir Isaac Newton's calculus. Cartesian coordinates are a system for representing the positions of points on a plane or in space relative to each other, allowing geometric questions to be analyzed as questions about numbers.
But, mathematical contributions aside, it was as a philosopher that Descartes is best known. For Descartes, philosophy meant "the study of wisdom, and by wisdom we understand not only prudence in affairs but also a perfect knowledge of all things which man can know both for the conduct of his life and for the conservation of his health and the invention of all the arts." In his view, the Tree of Knowledge had its roots in metaphysics, its trunk in physics, and its branches in medicine, mechanics, morals, and the other sciences. Every physical event was governed by the same physical laws, including changes in the human body, and the essence of natural science was the discovery of relationships that, Descartes believed, could be expressed in mathematical terms. Moreover, mathematics provided the kind of clear and certain knowledge that became the touchstone of Descartes' quest for truth.
In his Discourse on Method, published in 1637, and Meditations on the First Philosophy, published in 1641 along with six sets of Objections from distinguished persons and Descartes' Replies to the Objections, the philosopher presented his most important philosophical theories. Descartes is probably most famous for his statement, Cogito, ergo sum (I think therefore I am). Descartes reached that conclusion after systematically doubting everything, including his senses, with the goal of finding the something indubitable. He concluded that he might be dreaming and believe things to be present that in reality were not, so even reality could be doubted. But not the fact that he as a consciousness was doubting. Upon this fundamental clear and evident certainty he built his philosophy, which included a belief in God. Descartes also believed that the body is a machine, with its own energy sources, and he postulated that it was linked to the soul through the pineal gland at the base of the brain. Besides his major philosophical works, Descartes also produce other writings that include the unfinished Rules for the Direction of the Understanding (1628), which was not published during his lifetime, The Principles of Philosophy (1644), The Passions of the Soul (1649), and extensive correspondence that addresses many of his ideas.
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