RENE DESCARTES

BIOGRAPHY

La Haye, France, 1596 - Stockholm, Sweden, 1650) French philosopher and mathematician. René Descartes was educated at the Jesuit college of La Flèche (1604-1612), where he enjoyed a certain preferential treatment in view of his poor health.

He earned a bachelor's degree and law degree by the faculty of Poitiers (1616), and twenty-two left for the Netherlands, where he served as a soldier in the army of Maurice of Nassau. In 1619 he joined the ranks of the Duke of Bavaria, on 10 November in the course of three successive dreams, René Descartes saw the famous "revelation" that led to the development of his method . After giving up the military life, Descartes traveled in Germany and the Netherlands and returned to France in 1622, to sell their possessions and thus ensure an independent life, spent some time in Italy (1623-1625) and settled then in Paris, where he associated with the majority of scientists of the time. In 1628 he decided to settle in the Netherlands considered the most favorable place to meet the goals of philosophy and science had been fixed, and resided there until 1649.

The first five years were devoted mainly to develop its own system in the world and its conception of man and the human body, which was nearing completion in 1633 when, having heard of the condemnation of Galileo, resigned from the publication of his work , to take place posthumously.

In 1637 appeared his famous Discourse on Method, presented as a prologue to three scientific essays. Descartes proposed a methodical doubt, to prosecute all knowledge of the time, though, unlike the skeptics doubt his was a-seeking of ultimate principles on which sustaining a strong knowledge.