Rene Descartes
Rene Descartes
René Descarteswas a French philosopher, mathematician, and scientist. Dubbed the father of modern western philosophy, much of subsequent Western philosophy is a response to his writings, which are studied closely to this day. He spent about 20 years of his life in the Dutch Republic...
ProfessionPhilosopher
Date of Birth31 March 1596
CityIndre-et-Loire, France
science body matter
The nature of matter, or body considered in general, consists not in its being something which is hard or heavy or coloured, or which affects the senses in any way, but simply in its being something which is extended in length, breadth and depth.
war battle sides
If I found any new truths in the sciences, I can say that they follow from, or depend on, five or six principal problems which I succeeded in solving and which I regard as so many battles where the fortunes of war were on my side.
fall mean simple
These long chains of perfectly simple and easy reasonings by means of which geometers are accustomed to carry out their most difficult demonstrations had led me to fancy that everything that can fall under human knowledge forms a similar sequence; and that so long as we avoid accepting as true what is not so, and always preserve the right order of deduction of one thing from another, there can be nothing too remote to be reached in the end, or to well hidden to be discovered.
anger passion self
The principal use of prudence, of self-control, is that it teaches us to be masters of our passions, and to so control and guide them that the evils which they cause are quite bearable, and that we even derive joy from them all.
hands pieces difficulty
Divide each difficulty at hand into as many pieces as possible and as could be required to better solve them.
differences mind body
There is a great difference between mind and body insomuch as body is by nature always divisible, and the mind is entirely indivisible.
philosophical doubt firsts
The first precept was never to accept a thing as true until I knew it as such without a single doubt.
principles physics mathematics
I accept no principles of physics which are not also accepted in mathematics.
eye order mind
The entire method consists in the order and arrangement of the things to which the mind's eye must turn so that we can discover some truth.
inspirational atheist humorous
I think; therefore I am.
ancient
There is nothing more ancient than the truth.
believe ontology logic
Although my knowledge grows more and more, nevertheless I do not for that reason believe that it can ever be actually infinite, since it can never reach a point so high that it will be unable to attain any greater increase.
life thinking doubt
I am thing that thinks: that is, a things that doubts,affirms, denies, understands a few things, is ignorant of many things, is willing, is unwilling, and also which imagines and has sensory perceptions.
men thinking desire
Good sense is, of all things among men, the most equally distributed; for every one thinks himself so abundantly provided with it, that those even who are the most difficult to satisfy in everything else, do not usually desire a larger measure of this quality than they already possess.