Rene Descartes: biography and basic ideas

Many researchers of the history of philosophy rightly consider Rene Descartes the founder of Western modern philosophy. What is René Descartes famous for? Biography and basic ideas of this physicist, mathematician, scientist are described in the article below.

Childhood and adolescence

Rene Descartes was born into an impoverished aristocratic family and was the youngest of three sons. His upbringing involved a grandmother on the maternal line, as the father, Joachim Descartes, worked as a judge in another city, and his mother, Jeanne Brochard, died when Renee was not yet two years old. The boy received religious education in the Jesuit school of La Flusch. From the very childhood he was very inquisitive and early began to get involved in mathematics. In 1616, René Descartes received a bachelor's degree.

Rene Descartes. Biography. Dutch period

After graduating from university, the future scientist went to war. During the time spent in military service, he visited several hot spots of that time: the siege of La Rochelle, the revolution in Holland, the battle for Prague in a thirty-year war. Upon his return to his homeland, Descartes almost immediately had to leave for Holland, because in France the Jesuits accused him of heresy for free-thinking.

In Holland, the scientist lived for 20 years. During these years of scientific research, Descartes created and published several works that became fundamental in his philosophy.

• "The World" (1634)
• "Discourse on the method" (1637)
• "Reflections on the First Philosophy ..." (1641)
• "The First Principles of Philosophy" (1644)

The society was divided into two parts: those who were delighted, and those who were shocked by their discoveries by Rene Descartes.

A brief biography of the scientist is full of discoveries and labors, but very little is known about his personal life. Married, Descartes was not. It is known only that in 1635 his daughter Francine was born. Her mother was a servant of a scientist. Rene Descartes was very attached to the baby and was long inconsolable when she suddenly died of scarlet fever at the age of 5. Being a strange and closed person, the philosopher turned out to be a caring and tender father.

Church elite of Holland could not accept freethinking ideas of the scientist. All his life he was persecuted. The Dutch period is no exception. In France, Cardinal Richelieu allowed to print his tudas, but the Protestant theologians of the Netherlands imposed a curse on him.

Swedish period

In 1649, René Descartes, at the persistent invitation of the Swedish Queen Cristina, persecuted by the Dutch Inquisition, moved to Stockholm. In 1649 he published his work "The Passion of the Soul."

Life at the court was also not easy: the queen, although she was supportive of the scientist, but too often loaded him with mental work. At the same time, the philosopher's health (already weak) was further shaken in the harsh northern climate. Relations with the scientist and the church deteriorated completely.

According to the official version, Rene Descartes died on February 11, 1650, with pneumonia. There is a suggestion that he was poisoned. After 17 years, the remains of the great philosopher were, at the request of France, transported from Sweden and reburied in the chapel of the abbey of Saint-Germain.

The importance of the philosophy of Descartes - the founder of rationalism

Rene Descartes is rightfully considered the founder of rationalism. The main ideas in the field of philosophy can be summarized as follows.

• The scientist put forward a hypothesis about the basic modes and attributes of a substance.
• Descartes proved that the mind in cognition plays the main role.
• He belongs to the authorship of the theory of dualism, through which the materialistic and idealistic trends of philosophy are reconciled.
• Descartes advanced the theory of "innate ideas."

The doctrine of substance

In the process of studying the problem of being, its essence, the concept of a substance was formulated, the author of which is Rene Descartes. The main ideas of the scientist are based on this concept.

Substance is all that exists and yet does not need for its existence in anything but itself. This quality is possessed only by the eternal, uncreated, almighty Lord. He is the cause of everything and the source. God, being the Creator, created the world, too, from substances that possess the same quality: they exist and do not need to exist in anything other than themselves. In relation to each other, the created substances are self-sufficient, and in relation to the Lord they are secondary.

Descartes divides the created substances into material (things) and spiritual (ideas). The material secondary substances are characterized by a stretch (measures of length). They are divisible to infinity. Spiritual created substances, according to the idea of the philosopher, have a sign of thinking. They are indivisible.

A man raises above everything else in nature that he consists of two substances: material and spiritual. Thus, a person is dualistic. Material and spiritual substances in it are equivalent. Such was the "crown of creation" Renee Descartes. The views of the scientist on dualism solved the age-old question of philosophy about what is primary: matter or consciousness.

Proof of the primacy of the mind

"I think, therefore I exist" - the author of this famous aphorism is Rene Descartes. The main discoveries of the philosopher are based on the postulate of the primacy of the mind.

In any thing you can doubt, therefore, doubt exists really and does not need proof. Doubt is a property of thought. Doubting, the person thinks. Therefore, a person really exists, because he thinks. Thinking is the work of the mind, therefore the basis of being is precisely the mind.

Descartes deduction

The scientist suggested using the deduction method not only in mathematics and physics, but also in philosophy. "Turning knowledge from handicraft to industrial production" is the task that Rene Descartes set for himself. The country in which he lived (especially the Jesuits) did not take his teaching.

Here are the basic postulates of this epistemological method:

• To rely on research only on absolutely reliable knowledge and judgments that are beyond doubt;
• To divide a complex problem into parts;
• Go from proven and known to unproved and unfamiliar;
• Observe a strict sequence, do not allow the loss of links in the logical chain.

The doctrine of "innate ideas"

Great importance in the development of philosophy received the doctrine of "innate ideas", the author of which is also Rene Descartes. The main ideas and postulates of the theory are:

• Most knowledge is achieved by deduction, but there is knowledge that does not require proof - "innate ideas";
• They are divided into concepts (for example, the soul, body, God, etc.) and judgments (for example, the whole is greater than a part).

Rene Descartes. Biography: Interesting facts

• For 20 years in Holland, Rene Descartes lived in all of her cities.
• IP Pavlov considered Rene Descartes the founder of his studies, therefore he established a monument to the philosopher before his laboratory.
• With the light hand of Descartes, the Latin letters A, B and C denote constant values, and the last letters of the Latin alphabet are variables.
• On the Moon there is a crater, named after the great scientist.
• The Swedish Queen Christina wanted her to go with Rene Descartes every morning. The biography of the scientist contains information that he had to get up at five in the morning for this.
• When the remains of the philosopher were reburied, the skull was lost, which no one could explain and could not.
• Despite the fact that until now the official version of the death of a scientist is pneumonia, many believe that he was killed. In the 1980s, evidence was found for poisoning Rene Descartes with arsenic.