Accomplishments

=Descartes' Major Accomplishments and Works =

• The Scientific revolution brought about a new conception of the universe, which strongly influenced the Western view of humankind. As shown by the work of the French philosopher Rene Descartes. • He is often called the father of modern rationalism, or the father of modern philosophy. • His philosophy dominated Western thought until around the twentieth century. • Descartes began by thinking and writing about doubt and uncertainty. His main concept was to consider anything from belief to be false and doubt everything. • Most famous of his works was, //Discourse on Method//, written in 1637 • He emphasized the importance of his mind and stated that he would accept only those things that he reasoned were true, as shown through the quote, "I think, therefore I am." • This idea caused scientists to begin to question what they believed to be real, and led them to seek truths. This was done by doubting everything. • From, "the mind cannot be doubted but the body and material world can, the two must be radically different," shows the separation of mind and matter (and of the mind and body). • He rejected the substantial forms as explanatory principles in physics, and denied the thesis that all knowledge comes from sensations. Descartes argued that some senses can be deceived then they cannot be a reliable source for knowledge. • Descartes reasoning went in circles in that he needs God’s existence for the absolute certainty of the earlier truths and yet he needs the absolute certainty of these truths to demonstrate God’s existence with certainty, this is known as, “Cartesian Circle”. • The famous mathematician created what is known as the, "Cartesian Plane".

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