4th+Period+-+Rene+Descartes

=4th Period - Rene Descartes=

By: Nicholas S.



Date of birth: March 31,1596

Location of birth: La Haye, near Chatellerault

Parents’ names: Joachim Descartes and Jeanne Brochard

Family background: Rene Descartes was the youngest of 4 children. His oldest brother Pierre died shortly after his birth on October 19,1589. His sister Jeanne was born around year 1590. Pierre (2nd) was born on October 19,1591, exactly 2 years after his older brother Pierre. After there mother's death they moved to live with there grandmother Jeanne Sain.

Date of death: February 1650 Location of death/grave: He died in Sweden and was buried in the graveyard of Saint-Germain-des-Pres Church, Paris

Education: Educated at a Jesuit College on Easter of 1607 and left in 1614. He studied grammar, rhetoric, verbal arts, dialectic, arithmetic, music, geometry, astronomy, metaphysics, natural philosophy, and ethics. In 1615-1616 he received a degree and a license in civil and canon law at the University of Poiters.

Career: Rene Descartes served in the armys of Maurice of Nassau and Maximilia of Bavaria. He met Isaac Beekman and was inspired to restart and go into math and science. He spent most of his time in the Netherlands where he wrote 3 major books on philosophy. __Discourse on the Method of Rightly Conducting One's Reason, and seeking Truth in the Science__ 1637, __Meditations on First Philosophy__ 1641, and __Principles of Philosophy__ 1644.

Legacy: Rene Descartes was a dualist or a person that claims that the world consists of 2 parts, matter and spirit. He may have discovered the law of refraction in 1620. He said that "do I exist" is an irrelevant question. He is famous for his quote "Cogito, ergo sum" or "I think, therefor I am". He said that a swallow flies simply for the sake of being a swallow and that being a swallow in it's goal. The "swallowness (spirit) unites with matter to form a swallow. He said that something cannot give what it does not have. He said that all things contained in ideas must be stored formally (actually) or eminently (in a higher form). He said that once something in motion stays in motion leading to the Cartesian Vortex.

Additional/Interesting information: Rene has been called "the father of modern philosophy". He was known to have disliked impractical subjects. In school he was allowed to sleep until 10:00am although the other boys woke up at 5:00am. His words "Cogito, ergo sum" may be the best known of all philosophical quotations. His birthplace is now called La Haye-Descartes.

Sources Cited (Rene Descartes – 4th Period)

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