. 1596–1650. Born at La Haye in France and educated by the Jesuits, he travelled in his youth and then lived mostly in Holland, but finally at the Swedish court. Usually known as the first of the ‘continental RATIONALISTS’, he contributed to mathematics, as well as philosophy, inventing ‘Cartesian co-ordinates’ and analytical geometry. In philosophy he aimed to establish a basis for certainty by pursuing SCEPTICISM as far as possible, using a ‘method of doubt’ until he reached something he could not doubt, his principle ‘Cogito ergo sum’ (‘I think therefore I am’), on which he built up a systematic philosophy. He is particularly noted for his body/ mind dualism.
Discours de la méthode pour bien conduire sa raison et chercher les vérités dans les sciences (Discourse on Method), 1637. Meditationes de Prima Philosophia (Meditations on the First Philosophy), 1641. Principia Philosophiae (Principles of Philosophy), 1644. See also ANALYTIC, CARTESIAN, FOUNDATIONALISM, HOBBES, INCORRIGIBLE, MALEBRANCHE, RYLE, SPACE, SPINOZA, SUBSTANCE, THINKING.
J.Cottingham et al. (eds), The Philosophical Writings of Descartes, 3 vols, Cambridge UP, 1985, 1984, 1991.
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