René Descartes
René Descartes
I think, therefore I am.
The second person from the right is Rene Descartes. He was invited to have a lecture of his idea at the court of Queen Christina of Sweden.
Who Is Descartes?
René Descartes
(1596-1650)
"A proposer of metaphysics, a natural philosopher, and a father of geometry."
René Descartes was born on 31 March 1956 in La Haye, Touraine(Current name: Descartes, Indre-et-Loire). He was mostly influenced by Aristotle when he was in Jesuit College of La Fléche. The following college taught logic, morals, physics, metaphysics, and mathematics based on Aristotle's works. Aristotle was not only the influential scholar but Plato, Stoics, and Galileo were also the ones who stimulated Descartes.
From these ancient scholars, Descartes only believed the logical and mathematical reason of every existence. His knowledge evoked the Enlightenment people who want to discover new facts instead of antiqued ideas from Catholic Church. He supported the metaphysical world with the mathematical techniques, which commonly called as a 'geometry'. His metaphysics further to the philosophy. Through the meditations, he wanted people to identify the false beliefs and to enlighten the existence of themselves.
"Cogito Ergo Sum"
"I think, therefore I am."
Regarding natural philosophy and a meditation, Rene Descartes claimed that people should doubt the institutional things that they believed. Since all beliefs cannot logically be explained, people should recognize their beliefs were false. Even though those beliefs were all false, it does not mean that people do not exist. In fact, whether the people who convinced themselves that their beliefs are false or true, there are the 'people' that are convinced. Throughout the justification of proposition, people cannot be doubtful about themselves. Therefore, people can say "I think, therefore I am(exist)."
Contribution
...to Age of Reason
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Philosophy
Mathematics
Did you know...
A secret behind Descartes's death
By 1649, Descartes was summoned by Catherine of Sweden for her tutors. At her court, there were several theological coreligionists who thought Descartes as a heretic because of his theories. Descartes was a devout Catholic, nevertheless, his metaphysics are not similar to Catholic Church's teachings. Moreover, Swedish churches were afraid of Descartes because of his radical ability of spread. Since Swedish Churches were still teaching based on classics and the Bible, enlightened Descartes's theories were against their teachings. So the Catholic priest purposely gave poisoned wafer to Descartes and deceived that Descartes died because of pneumonia. But Descartes doctor, Van Wullen, found the symptom of poisoning instead of pneumonia.
