René Descartes

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Renà © ¨ © Descartes ( ; French: Ã, deka? t] ; Latinized: Renatus Cartesius ; adjective form: "Cartesian"; March 31, 1596 - February 11, 1650) was a French philosopher, mathematician and scientist. Nicknamed the father of modern Western philosophy, much of the next Western philosophy is a response to his writings, studied closely to this day. A native of the French Empire, he spent about 20 years (1629-49) living in the Republic of the Netherlands after serving for some time in the Dutch Army from Maurice of Nassau, Prince of Orange and Stadtholder of United Provinces. He is generally regarded as one of the most famous intellectual representatives of the Dutch Golden Age.

Descartes' Meditation on First Philosophy continues to be the standard text in most university philosophy departments. Descartes's influence in mathematics is also apparent; Cartesian coordinate system (see below) is named after its name. He is credited as the father of analytical geometry, the bridge between algebra and geometry, used in the invention of infinite calculus and analysis. Descartes is also one of the key figures in the scientific revolution.

Descartes refused to accept the authority of previous philosophers. He often set his outlook apart from his predecessors. In the opening section of my Passion de l'ÃÆ' Â ¢ I , a treatise on the early modern version of what is now called emotion, Descartes goes so far as to assert that he will write about this topic " as if no one has written about these things before ". His most famous philosophical statement is " Cogito ergo sum " (French: Je pense, donc je suis ; > I think, therefore I am ), found in part IV of Discours de la mÃÆ' Â © thode (1637; written in French but with the inclusion " Cogito ergo sum ") and Part I of the Principles of Philosophy (1644; written in Latin).

Many of his philosophical elements have precedents in Aristotelianism, revived Stoicism in the 16th century, or in earlier philosophers such as Augustine. In his natural philosophy, he differs from the schools on two main points: first, he rejects the separation of the corporeal substance into matter and form; secondly, it rejects all attraction for the ultimate, divine or natural purpose, in explaining natural phenomena. In his theology, he emphasizes the absolute freedom of God's creation.

Descartes laid the foundation for the 17th century continent's rationalism, which was later supported by Spinoza and Leibniz, and was opposed by a stream of empirical thought consisting of Hobbes, Locke, Berkeley, and Hume. Leibniz, Spinoza, and Descartes were all well versed in mathematics and philosophy, and Descartes and Leibniz also contributed greatly to science.

Video René Descartes

Life

Initial life

Renà ©  © du Perron Descartes was born in La Haye en Touraine (now Descartes, Indre-et-Loire), France, on March 31, 1596. His mother, Jeanne Brochard, died shortly after giving birth to him, and therefore he was not expected to survive. Descartes's father, Joachim, was a member of the Brittany Parliament in Rennes. Renà ©  © lived with her grandmother and with her great-great uncle. Although Descartes' family is Roman Catholic, the Poitou region is controlled by the Protestant Huguenot. In 1607, late due to his fragile health, he entered the Jesuit CollÃÆ'¨ge Royal Henry-Le-Grand at La FlÃÆ'¨che, where he was introduced to mathematics and physics, including Galileo's work. After graduating in 1614, he studied for two years (1615-16) at the University of Poitiers, earned the title BaccalaurÃÆ' © in and License in canon and civil law in 1616, accordingly with his father's wish that he should become a lawyer. From there he moved to Paris.

In his book The Discourse on the Method , Descartes recalled,

I completely abandoned the study of letters. Deciding not to seek knowledge other than what can be found in myself or others in the world's ledger, I spend the rest of my youth traveling, visiting the palace and the army, mixing with people of various temperaments and rank, gathering experiences, testing myself in situations that my luck offers, and at all times reflect whatever comes my way so as to gain some benefit from it.

Given his ambition to become a professional military officer, in 1618 Descartes joined, as mercenaries, the Protestant Dutch Army in Breda under the command of Maurice of Nassau, and undertook formal military engineering studies, as determined by Simon Stevin. Descartes therefore received much encouragement in Breda to advance his knowledge of mathematics. In this way, he became acquainted with Isaac Beeckman, head of the Dordrecht school, for whom he wrote Compendium of Music (written 1618, published 1650). Together they work on free fall, catenary, conic section, and fluid statics. Both believe that it is necessary to create methods that are really related to mathematics and physics.

While in the Catholic ministry of Duke of Maximilian of Bavaria since 1619, Descartes was present at the Battle of the White Mountain outside Prague, in November 1620.

Visions

According to Adrien Baillet, on the night of 10-11 November 1619 (St. Martin's Day), when stationed in Neuburg an der Donau, Descartes enclosed himself in a room with an "oven" (probably a Kachelofen) stone) to avoid the cold. While inside, he has three dreams and believes that the divine spirit reveals to him a new philosophy. However, it seems that what Descartes considers to be his second dream is actually the episode of head blast syndrome. Upon exiting, he has formulated analytical geometry and the idea of ​​applying mathematical methods to philosophy. He concludes from this vision that the pursuit of science will prove, for him, the pursuit of true wisdom and the central part of his life's work. Descartes also saw very clearly that all truths are connected to one another to discover the fundamental truth and continue logic will pave the way for all science. Descartes finds this basic truth soon: "I think, therefore I am famous".

French

In 1620 Descartes left the army. He visited the Basilica della Santa Casa in Loreto, then visited various countries before returning to France, and for the next few years spent time in Paris. It was there that he composed his first essay on methods: Regulae ad Directionem Ingenii (Rules for Mind Directions). He arrived at La Haye in 1623, selling all his properties to invest in bonds, which provided a comfortable income for the rest of his life. Descartes was present at La Rochelle's siege by Cardinal Richelieu in 1627. In the fall of the same year, at the residence of Miss Guidi's papal in Bagno, where he came with Mersenne and many other scholars to listen to a lecture given by Alchemist Nicolas de Villiers, Sieur de Chandoux on newly regarded philosophical principles, Cardinal BÃÆ' Â © urged him to write an exposition of his own new philosophy in several locations beyond the reach of the inquisition.

Dutch

Descartes returned to the Republic of the Netherlands in 1628. In April 1629, he joined the University of Franeker, studied under Adriaan Metius, lived with a Catholic family, or rented a Sjaerdemaslot, where he invited a French chef and an optician. The following year, under the name of "Poitevin", he enrolled at the University of Leiden to study mathematics with Jacobus Golius, who confronted him with Pappus hexagon theorem, and astronomy with Martin Hortensius. In October 1630 he quarreled with Beeckman, whom he accused of plagiarizing some of his ideas. In Amsterdam, he has a relationship with a servant girl, Helena Jans van der Strom, with whom she has a daughter, Francine, who was born in 1635 at Deventer.

Unlike many of the moralists of the time, Descartes had no passions but defended them; he cried over the death of Francine in 1640. "Descartes says that he does not believe that one should refrain from tears to prove himself as a human being." Russell Shorto postulates that the experience of fatherhood and the loss of a child forms a turning point in Descartes' work, turning his focus from medicine into a universal quest for answers.

Despite his frequent moves, he wrote all his major work for over 20 years in the Netherlands, where he succeeded in revolutionizing mathematics and philosophy. In 1633, Galileo was condemned by the Catholic Church, and Descartes abandoned plans to publish his Treatise on the World, four years earlier. However, in 1637 he published parts of this work in three essays: "Les MÃÆ'Ã… © tà © Ã… © ores" (The Meteors), "La Dioptrique" (Dioptrics) and "La GÃÆ'Ã… © omÃÆ'  © trie" (Geometry ), preceded by the introduction, the famous Discours de la mÃÆ'  © thode (The Discourse on Methods). In it, Descartes describes four rules of thought, which are intended to ensure that our knowledge rests on a firm foundation.

The first one has never received anything for the truth I do not know clearly to be like that; meaning, carefully to avoid presuppositions and prejudices, and nothing more deeper in my judgment than what is presented to my mind so clearly and clearly to exclude all doubts.

In Descendes he exploited the discovery he made with Pierre de Fermat, being able to do so because his paper, Introduction to Loci, was published posthumously in 1679. It came to be known as Cartesian Geometry.

Descartes continued to publish works on mathematics and philosophy for the rest of his life. In 1641 he published the work of metaphysics, Meditationes de Prima Philosophia (Reflections on First Philosophy), written in Latin and thus addressed to the learned. It was followed, in 1644, by the Principles of Philosophy, the synthesis of the Discourse on the Method and the Meditations on First Philosophy. In 1643, Cartesian philosophy was condemned at Utrecht University, and Descartes was forced to flee to The Hague, and settled on Egmond-Binnen.

Descartes began (through Alfonso Polloti, an Italian general in the Dutch service) a long correspondence with Princess Elisabeth of Bohemia, devoted primarily to moral and psychological subjects. Connected with this correspondence, in 1649 he published My Passions of the Soul, which he dedicated to the Princess. In 1647, he was granted a retirement by Louis XIV of France, though never paid. The French translation Principia PhilosophiÃÆ'Â| , prepared by Abbas Claude Picot, was published in 1647. This edition Descartes is also dedicated to Princess Elisabeth. In the introduction to the French edition, Descartes praised true philosophy as a means of attaining wisdom. He identifies four common sources for attaining wisdom and finally says that there is a fifth, better and safer, consisting of the search for the first cause.

Swedish

In 1649, Descartes had become famous throughout Europe for being one of the greatest philosophers and scientists on the continent. That year, Queen Christina of Sweden invited Descartes to her palace to organize a new scientific academy and guide her in her ideas about love. He was interested and encouraged Descartes to publish "Passions of the Soul", a work based on his correspondence with Princess Elisabeth. Descartes accepted, and moved to Sweden in the middle of winter.

He is a guest at the home of Pierre Chanut, who lives in VÃÆ'¤sterlÃÆ'  ¥ nggatan, less than 500 meters from Tre Kronor in Stockholm. There, Chanut and Descartes made observations with a Torricellian barometer, a tube with mercury. Challenging Blaise Pascal, Descartes took the first set of barometric readings in Stockholm to see if atmospheric pressure could be used in forecasting the weather.

Death

Descartes apparently began giving lessons to Queen Christina after her birthday, three times a week, at 5 am, in her cold, windy castle. It soon became clear they did not like each other; he did not like his mechanical philosophy, nor did he appreciate his interest in Ancient Greece. On January 15, 1650, Descartes had seen Christina only four or five times. On February 1 he contracted pneumonia and died on 11 February. The cause of death is pneumonia according to Chanut, but peripneumonia according to doctor Van Wullen who is not allowed to remove his blood. (Winter seems mild, except for the harsh second half of January as Descartes himself describes, but "this statement may be intended to know Descartes about the intellectual climate of the weather.")

In 1996 E. Pies, a German scholar, published a book questioning this account, based on a letter by Johann van Wullen, sent by Christina to treat her, something Descartes rejected, and more arguments against her truth have been raised since. Descartes may have been killed when he asked for an emetic: wine mixed with tobacco.

As a Catholic in a Protestant country, he was buried in a grave used primarily for orphans at Adolf Fredriks kyrka in Stockholm. The manuscripts belong to Claude Clerselier, Chanut's brother-in-law, and "a devout Catholic who has begun the process of transforming Descartes into a saint by cutting, adding and publishing his letters selectively." In 1663, the Pope placed his work on the Forbidden Book Index. In 1666 his body was brought to France and buried in Saint-ÃÆ' â € ° tienne-du-Mont. In 1671 Louis XIV banned all lectures in Cartesianism. Although the National Convention in 1792 had planned to move his body to the PanthÃÆ'Â © on, he was buried again in the Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-PrÃÆ' Â © s in 1819, lost his fingers and skull. His skull was on display at the Musée de l'Homme in Paris.

Maps René Descartes

Philosophical work

Initially Descartes came to only one principle: thought existed. The mind can not be separated from me, therefore, I have ( Discourse on Method and Principles of Philosophy ). Most famous, this is known as cogito ergo sum (English: "I think, therefore I am"). Therefore, Descartes concludes, if he is in doubt, then something or someone must have doubts, therefore the fact that he doubts proves his existence. "The simple meaning of this phrase is that if a person is skeptical of existence, it is proof that he exists."

Descartes concludes that he can be sure that he is there because he thinks. But in what form? He senses his body through the use of the senses; However, this was previously unreliable. So Descartes determined that the only true knowledge was that he was a thinker. Thinking is what he does, and his strength must come from his essence. Descartes defines "mind" ( cogitatio ) as "what happens within me that I immediately realize, as far as I am aware of it". Thus, thinking is any activity of a person immediately known by that person. He gives reason to think that awakened minds can be distinguished from dreams, and that one's mind can not be "hijacked" by evil demons that place an illusory external world before one's senses.

So something I think I see with my eyes is in fact understood by the faculty of judgment that is in my mind.

In this way Descartes went on to build a system of knowledge, to dispose of perception as unreliable and, on the contrary, to recognize only deduction as a method.

Dualism

Descartes, influenced by the automatons on display throughout Paris, began to investigate the connection between mind and body, and how they interacted. The main influences for dualism are theology and physics. The theory of the duality of mind and body is Descartes' signature doctrine and penetrates other theories he enhances. Known as Cartesian dualism, his theory of separation between mind and body continues to influence the next Western philosophy. In Meditation on First Philosophy Descartes seeks to show God's existence and the difference between the human soul and the body. Man is the union of mind and body, so Descartes' dualism embraces the idea that the mind and body are different but join tightly. While many of Descartes's contemporary readers find the difference between mind and body that is difficult to understand, he thinks it's entirely easy. Descartes uses the concept of mode , which is the way in which the substance exists. In Descartes's "Principles of Philosophy" explains "we can clearly see a separate substance of the mode that we say is different from that, whereas we can not, on the contrary, understand the separate modes of substance". To see a mode separate from its substance requires an intellectual abstraction, Descartes described as follows:

"The intellectual abstraction consists of me changing my thinking from one part of the content of this richer idea, the better to apply it to other parts with greater attention, so when I consider the form without thinking of the substance or extension in its form, I make an abstraction mentally. "

According to Descartes two substances are completely different when each can exist apart from the other. So Descartes reasoned that God is different from humans, and human bodies and minds are also different from each other. He argues that the great difference between body and mind keeps them always divided. But the thought is inseparable, because "when I consider the mind, or myself as far as I am only thinking, I can not distinguish any part of myself, I understand myself as something single and complete. "

In Meditation Descartes discusses a piece of candle and exposes the single most distinctive doctrine of the Cartesian dualism: that the universe contains two very different kinds of matter - the mind or soul defined as thought, and the body is defined as essential and without thinking. Aristotle's philosophy of Descartes states that the universe is inherently purposeful or theological. Everything that happens, be it the movement of the stars or the growth of the tree, should be explained by a certain purpose, purpose, or end that works in nature. Aristotle calls this the "ultimate cause", and this final cause is necessary to explain the ways in which nature operates. With his theory of dualism, Descartes fired the opening shots for a battle between Aristotle's traditional science and the new science of Kepler and Galileo who rejected the last cause for explaining nature. Descartes's decentralism provides a philosophical reason for the latter and he expels the final cause of the physical universe (or res extensa ). For Descartes the only place left for the ultimate cause is mind (or res cogitans ). Therefore, while Cartesian dualism opens the way for modern physics, it also opens the door to religious beliefs about the immortality of the soul.

The dualism of mind and matter Descartes implies the concept of man. A man according to Descartes is a combined entity of the mind and body. Descartes put his mind first and thought that the mind can exist without body, but the body can not exist without thought. In Descartes even argues that when the mind is a substance, the body consists only of "accident". But he argues that the mind and body join tightly, because:

"Nature also taught me, with the sensation of pain, hunger, thirst and so on, that I was not only present in my body as a pilot on his ship, but that I was very closely joined and, as it were, mingle with it, form a unit.If this is not so, I, who is nothing but a thought, will not feel pain when the body is wounded, but will feel the pure damage by the intellect, just as a sailor sees by sight if something on his ship is damaged.

Descartes's discussion of manifestation raised one of the most puzzling issues of dualism's philosophy: What is the real relationship between the relationship between one's mind and body? Therefore, Cartesian dualism sets the agenda for the philosophical discussion of mind-body problems for many years after Descartes's death. Descartes was also a rationalist and believed in the power of innate ideas. Descartes poses the theory of innate knowledge and that all human beings are born with knowledge through the higher power of God. It is this innate theory of knowledge which then directs the philosopher John Locke (1632-1704) to combat the theory of empiricism, which states that all knowledge is acquired through experience. Descartes's physiology and psychology

Descartes

In The Passions of the Soul written between 1645 and 1646 Descartes discusses the general contemporary belief that the human body contains animal spirits. These animal spirits are believed to be light and the roaming fluid circulates rapidly around the nervous system between the brain and muscles, and serves as a metaphor for feelings, such as being in high or bad spirits. These animal spirits are believed to affect the human psyche, or the passions of the soul. Descartes distinguishes six basic interests: magic, love, hatred, desire, joy, and sadness. All of this passion, he argues, represents a different combination of the original spirit, and influences the soul to want or desire a particular action. He argues, for example, that fear is the passion that moves the soul to produce a response in the body. In line with his dualist doctrine of the separation between the soul and the body, he hypothesized that some parts of the brain function as a link between the soul and the body and choose the pineal gland as the link. Descartes argues that signals pass through the ears and eyes to the pineal gland, through animal spirits. Thus a different movement within the gland causes various animal spirits. He argues that this movement in the pineal gland is based on God's will and that humans should desire and like things that are useful to them. But he also argues that the animal spirits that move around the body can change the commands of the pineal gland, so humans must learn to control their lusts.

Descartes advanced the theory of automatic body reactions to external events that influenced the reflex theory of the nineteenth century. He argues that external movements such as touch and sound reach the nerve endings and affect the animal spirits. The heat from the fire affects the point on the skin and moves the chain of reactions, with the animal's spirits reaching the brain through the central nervous system, and the animal spirit is sent back to the muscles to move the hand away from the fire.. Through this chain of reactions the body's automatic reaction requires no thought processes.

Above all he is one of the first scientists to believe that the soul must be subject to scientific inquiry. He challenged the views of his contemporaries that the soul was divine, so the religious authorities considered his books as dangerous. Descartes's writing goes on to form the basis for the theory of emotions and how cognitive evaluation is translated into affective processes. Descartes believed that the brain resembles a working machine and unlike many of his contemporaries believed that mathematics and mechanics could explain the most complex thought processes. In the 20th century Alan Turing advanced computer science based on the mathematical biology that Descartes inspired. His theories about reflexes also serve as a foundation for advanced physiological theory more than 200 years after his death. Nobel Prize-winning physiologist Ivan Pavlov is a great admirer of Descartes.

Three kinds of ideas

There are three kinds of ideas, Descartes explains: Fabrication, Congenital, and Advent. The idea of ​​fabrication is a discovery made by the mind. For example, a person never eats moose but assumes it tastes like a cow. The Adventist idea is an idea that can not be manipulated or changed by the mind. For example, someone standing in a cold room, they can only think of that feeling as cold and nothing else. Innate ideas are ideas made by God in one's mind. For example, the form feature can be checked and cast aside, but its contents can never be manipulated so as not to be a three-sided object.

Descartes' moral philosophy

For Descartes, ethics is the science, the highest and the most perfect of them. Like other sciences, ethics has its roots in metaphysics. In this way, he debates the existence of God, investigates the place of man in nature, formulates the theory of mind-body dualism, and defends free will. However, since he is a sure rationalist, Descartes clearly states that reason is sufficient in searching for the things we should seek, and virtue consists of the right reasons that should guide our actions. However, the quality of this reasoning depends on knowledge, because well-informed minds will be better able to make good choices, and that also depends on the mental state. For this reason, he says that a complete moral philosophy should include the study of the body. He addressed this issue in correspondence with Princess Elisabeth of Bohemia, and as a result wrote his work The Passions of the Soul, which contains the study of human psychosomatic processes and reactions, with an emphasis on emotion or lust. His works on human desires and emotions will form the basis for the philosophy of his followers, (see Cartesianism), and will have a lasting impact on what literary and art ideas should be, especially how he should invite emotion.

Man must seek sovereign good that Descartes, following Zeno, identifies with virtue, for it produces a powerful blessing or pleasure. For Epicurus, sovereign goodness is a pleasure, and Descartes says that, in fact, this is not contrary to Zeno's teaching, because virtue produces spiritual pleasure, which is better than physical pleasure. Regarding Aristotle's contention that happiness depends on the goods of good luck, Descartes does not deny that this good contributes to happiness but claims that they are in great proportion beyond their control, whereas one's mind is under one's full control. Descartes's moral writings came in the last part of his life, but earlier, in his book The Discourse on Methods he adopted three maxims to act while he risked all his ideas. This is known as his "Provisional Moral".

Descartes about religious belief

In the third and fifth Meditations , he offers ontological evidence of a benevolent God (through ontological arguments and trademark arguments). Since God is virtuous, he can have confidence in the reality given by his senses, for God has given him a functioning brain and sense system and does not want to deceive himself. From this assumption, however, he ultimately establishes the possibility of acquiring knowledge of the world based on the perceptions of deduction and . Regarding epistemology, therefore, it can be said to have contributed ideas such as the strict conception of foundationalism and the possibility that reason is the only reliable method of acquiring knowledge. He, however, is well aware that experiments are needed to verify and validate the theory.

In his book Meditations on First Philosophy Descartes establishes two proofs for the existence of God. One is based on the possibility of thinking of "the idea of ​​a very perfect and infinite being," and indicating that "from all the ideas in me, the ideas I have about God are the most correct, the clearest and the most different." Descartes regarded himself as a devout Catholic and one of the goals of meditation is to defend the Catholic faith. His efforts to underline the theological beliefs of reason were met with strong opposition in his time, however: Pascal regarded Descartes's views as rationalist and mechanical, and accused him of deism: "I can not forgive Descartes; in all his philosophy, Descartes did his best to dispose with God. Descartes can not prevent God from arranging the world with the flick of his noble fingers, after which he is no longer useful to God, "while a formidable contemporary Martin Schoock accused him of being an atheist, though Descartes has given explicit criticism of atheism in his book Reflections . The Catholic Church forbade his book in 1663.

Descartes also wrote a response to the skepticism of the outside world. Through this method of skepticism, he does not hesitate to doubt but to achieve concrete and reliable information. In other words, certainty. He argues that sensual perception comes to him involuntarily, and is not wanted by him. They are out of his senses, and according to Descartes, this is evidence of the existence of something outside his mind, and thus, the external world. Descartes goes on to point out that things in the external world are material by declaring that God will not deceive him about the ideas being sent, and that God has given him a "tendency" to believe that those ideas are caused by matter matter. Descartes also believed that a substance is something that does not require help to function or exist. Descartes further explains how only God can be a true "substance". But the mind is a substance, which means they only need God to function. The mind is the substance of thought. The ingredients for the substance of thought come from the idea.

Descartes and the natural sciences

Descartes are often regarded as the first thinkers who emphasize the use of reason for developing natural sciences. For him philosophy is a system of thought that embodies all knowledge, and states it in this way:

Thus, all Philosophy is like a tree, of which Metaphysics is the root, Physics of stems, and all other branches of science growing from this rod, which is reduced to three principals, namely, Medicine, Mechanics, and Ethics. With Moral science, I understand the highest and the most perfect that, presuming all knowledge of other sciences, is the final level of wisdom.

In his book The Discourse on Methods, he tries to arrive at a set of fundamental principles that one can know as true without any doubt. To accomplish this, he uses a method called hyperbolic/metaphysical doubt, also sometimes referred to as methodological skepticism: he rejects any doubtable idea and then reassembles those ideas to gain a firm foundation for true knowledge. Descartes built his ideas from the beginning. He attributes this to architecture: the top soil is taken to create a new building or structure. Descartes called his doubts about the land and the new knowledge of the building. For Descartes, Aristotle's foundationalism was incomplete and his method of doubt enhanced foundationalism.

Descartes on animals

Descartes denies that animals have reason or intelligence. He argues that animals have no sensation or perception, but these can be explained mechanically. While humans have souls, or minds, and are able to feel pain and anxiety, animals based on not having a soul can not feel pain or anxiety. If the animals show signs of distress then this is to protect the body from damage, but the innate circumstances required for their suffering do not exist. Although Descartes's views were not universally accepted, they became famous in Europe and North America, allowing humans to treat animals freely from punishment. The view that animals are quite separate from humans and only machines are permitted for animal persecution, and approved in the laws and norms of society until the mid-19th century. The publication of Charles Darwin would eventually erode the Cartesian view of animals. Darwin argues that continuity between humans and other species opens up the possibility that animals do not have different properties to suffer.

Historical Impact

Emancipation of Church doctrine

Descartes is often dubbed the father of modern Western philosophy, a thinker whose approach has profoundly altered the course of Western philosophy and established the basis for modernity. The first two of Meditations on First Philosophy, which formulated a well-known methodical doubt, represented part of Descartes's writings that most influenced modern thought. It has been argued that Descartes himself did not realize the extent of this revolutionary movement. In moving the debate from "what is right" to "what can I believe?", Descartes practically shifts the authoritative truth guarantor from God to man (though Descartes himself claims that he received his vision from God) - while the tradition of "truth" implying an external authority, "certainty" rather than relying on individual judgment.

In an anthropocentric revolution, humans are now elevated to the level of subjects, agents, and emancipations equipped with autonomous reasons. It is a revolutionary step that forms the basis of modernity, a perceived impact: the emancipation of humanity from Christian revelational truths and the teachings of the Church; mankind makes its own laws and takes its own stand. In modernity, the guarantor of truth is not God but man, each of whom is the "self-conscious form and guarantor" of their own reality. In that way, everyone turns into an adult reasoning, subject and agent, as opposed to a child who is obedient to God. The change in this perspective is characteristic of the shift from the medieval period of Christianity to the modern period, the anticipated shift in other fields, and which is now being formulated in the field of philosophy by Descartes.

This Descartes anthropocentric perspective, which sets human reason as autonomous, provides the basis for the emancipation of the Enlightenment from God and the Church. According to Martin Heidegger, Descartes' perspective also provides the basis for all subsequent anthropology. Descartes' philosophical revolution is sometimes said to have induced modern anthropocentrism and subjectivism.

Mathematical relics

One of Descartes' most enduring legacies is his development of Cartesian or analytic geometry, which uses algebra to describe geometry. He "found the convention representing the unknown in equation with x , y , and z , and was known by a , b , and c ". He also "pioneered standard notation" that uses superscripts to show strength or exponents; for example, 2 is used in x ² to indicate x squared. He first established a fundamental place for algebra in our knowledge system, using it as a method to automate or mechanize reasoning, especially about abstract, unknown quantities. European mathematicians have previously seen geometry as a more fundamental form of mathematics, serving as the basis of algebra. The rules of algebra were given geometric proof by mathematicians such as Pacioli, Cardan, Tartaglia and Ferrari. The equation of degrees higher than the third is considered unreal, because the three-dimensional form, like the cube, occupies the greatest dimension of reality. Descartes states that the abstract quantity a ² can represent length and breadth. This is contrary to the teachings of mathematicians, such as Vieta, who argue that it can only represent regions. Although Descartes did not pursue the subject, he preceded Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz in dreaming of more general algebra or "universal mathematics," as a precursor of symbolic logic, which could include symbolic principles and logical methods, and the mechanization of general reasoning.

Descartes' work provides the basis for the calculus developed by Newton and Leibniz, which applies infinitesimal calculus to the problem of tangents, thus allowing the evolution of modern mathematical branches. The rule of signs is also a common method used to determine the number of positive and negative roots of a polynomial.

Descartes discovers the early form of the law of conservation of mechanical momentum (the size of the movement of an object), and imagines it as related to motion in a straight line, as opposed to a perfectly circular motion, as Galileo imagined. He describes his view of the universe in his book Principles of Philosophy .

Descartes also contributed to the optical field. He demonstrated by using geometric construction and the law of refraction (also known as Descartes' law or more commonly the law of Snell) that the angular angle of the rainbow is 42 degrees (ie, angles clogged in the eye by the edges of the rainbow and light passing from the sun through the center rainbow is 42 Â °). He also independently discovered the laws of reflection, and his essay on optics is the first mention of this law.

Influence on Newton's mathematics

The current opinion is that Descartes had the greatest influence of anyone on young Newton, and this is arguably one of Descartes' most important contributions. Newton continues Descartes's work on cubic equations, which frees the subject from the shackles of the Greek viewpoint. The most important concept is its modern treatment of independent variables.

Contemporary reception

Although Descartes was famous in academic circles near the end of his life, teaching his work in controversial schools. Henri de Roy (Henricus Regius, 1598-1679), Professor of Medicine at Utrecht University, was condemned by the University Rector, Gijsbert Voet (Voetius), for teaching physics Descartes.

Posts

• 1618. Musicae Compendium . A treatise on music theory and aesthetic music written for early collaborator Descartes, Isaac Beeckman (first edition of 1650).
• 1626-1628. Regulae ad directionem ingenii ( Rules for Mind Directions ). Incomplete. First published posthumously in Dutch translation in 1684 and in the original Latin in Amsterdam in 1701 ( R. Des-Cartes Opuscula Posthuma Physica et Mathematica ). The best critical edition, which included the Dutch translation of 1684, edited by Giovanni Crapulli (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1966).
• 1630-1631. La recherche de la vÃÆ' Â © ritÃÆ' Â © par la lumiÃÆ'¨re naturelle ( Search for Truth ) unfinished dialogue published in 1701.
• 1630-1633. Le Monde ( World ) and L'Homme ( Man ). Descartes's first systematic presentation of his natural philosophy. Man was published posthumously in Latin translation in 1662; and World posthumously in 1664.
• 1637. Diskurs de la mÃÆ'  © thode ( Discourse on Method ). Introduction to Essais , which includes Dioptrique , MÃÆ'  © tà © Ã… © ores and GÃÆ'Ã… © omÃÆ'  © trie .
• 1637. La GÃÆ'Ã… © omÃÆ' Â © trie ( Geometry ). Descartes's major work in mathematics. There is an English translation by Michael Mahoney (New York: Dover, 1979).
• 1641. Meditation de prima philosophia ( Meditation on First Philosophy ), also known as Metaphysical Meditation . In Latin; second edition, issued the following year, including additional objections and replies, and Letter for Dinet . The French translation by the Duke of Luynes, probably done without Descartes' supervision, was published in 1647. Including six Refusals and Replies.
• 1644. Principles of Philosophy , a Latin textbook originally intended by Descartes to replace Aristotle's textbook which was later used at the university. The French translation of Claude Picot's Principes de philosophie , under Descartes's supervision, appeared in 1647 with the introduction to Princess Elisabeth of Bohemia.
• 1647. Notae in programma ( Comment on Broadsheet Specific ). Reply to the one-time student Henricus Regius of Descartes.
• 1648. La description du corps humain ( Description of the Human Body ). Published posthumously by Clerselier in 1667.
• 1648. Renati Des Cartes Response... ( Conversation with Burman ). Notes about a question and answer session between Descartes and Frans Burman on 16 April 1648. Revealed in 1895 and published for the first time in 1896. An annotated bilingual edition (Latin with French translation), edited by Jean-Marie Beyssade, published in 1981 (Paris: PUF).
• 1649. Les Passion de l'ÃÆ' Â ¢ I ( Passions of the Soul ). Dedicated to Princess Elisabeth from Palatinate.
• 1657. Correspondence (three volumes: 1657, 1659, 1667). Published by Descartes literary pioneer Claude Clerselier. The third edition, in 1667, is the most complete; Clerselier is eliminated, however, a lot of math-related material.

Umum

• The Correspondence of RenÃÆ' © Descartes di EMLO
• Karya oleh RenÃÆ' © Descartes di Project Gutenberg
• Karya oleh atau tentang RenÃÆ' © Descartes di Internet Archive
• Karya oleh RenÃÆ' © Descartes di LibriVox (audiobook domain publik)
• Biografi detail Descartes di MacTutor
• Â Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "René © Descartes". Catholic Encyclopedia . New York: Robert Appleton Company.
• Terjemahan John Cottingham dari Meditasi dan Keberatan dan Balasan .
• RenÃÆ' © Descartes (1596-1650) Diterbitkan di Ensiklopedia Retorika dan Komposisi (1996)
• Situs yang berisi karya utama Descartes, termasuk korespondensi, sedikit dimodifikasi agar lebih mudah dibaca
• Descartes Philosophical Writings tr. oleh Norman Kemp Smith di archive.org
• Studi dalam filsafat Cartesian (1902) oleh Norman Kemp Smith di archive.org
• Karya Filosofis Of Descartes Volume II (1934) di archive.org
• Descartes ditampilkan pada 100 uang kertas Perancis Franc dari tahun 1942.
• Skor gratis oleh RenÃÆ' © Descartes di Proyek Perpustakaan Skor Musik Internasional (IMSLP)
• RenÃÆ' © Descartes di Proyek Genealogi Matematika
• Centro Interdipartimentale di Studi su Descartes e il Seicento
• Livre Premier, La GÃÆ' © omÃÆ' © trie , daring dan dianalisis oleh A. Warusfel, BibNum [klik 'ÃÆ' tÃÆ' © lÃÆ' © pengisi daya' untuk Analisis bahasa Inggris]

Bibliographers

• Cartesian Bibliography/Bibliographie cartà  © sienne online (1997-2012)

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

• Descartes
• Hidup dan bekerja
• Epistemologi
• Matematika
• Fisika
• Etika
• Modal Metafisika
• Argumen Ontologis
• Teori Gagasan
• Pineal Gland
• Tesis Hukum

Ensiklopedia Internet Filsafat

• Descartes
• Metode Ilmiah
• Perbedaan Mind-Body

More

• Bernard Williams interviewed Descartes about "Men of ideas"
• RenÃÆ' Â © Descartes in Find the Mausoleum

Source of the article : Wikipedia