Rene Descartes Bio

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Rene Descartes

Rene Descartes, the founder of modern philosophy and Father of Modern Mathematics, was born on March 31st, 1596 in La Hayne (now called Descartes), Touraine, France. He was an amazing Philosopher who completely changed the world of arithmetic; he influenced many throughout the 17th century up till modern day.

His only parent was his father; his mother died a few days after his birth. His father, Joachim Descartes was a Councilor of the Parliament. Though Rene's father remarried, he and his siblings were brought up by their maternal grandmother.

As a boy, Rene was in poor health; while in school he was permitted to stay in bed until 11 o' clock each morning, this habit continued throughout the rest of his life. At eight years old his father enrolled him into the Jesuit College in La Fleche, where he went to school up until 1612. He graduated from the University of Poitiers at the age of eighteen and had a degree in law by 1616, and then enlisted in Breda (a military school).

He apprenticed under Dutch scientist Isaac Beeckman in 1618, where he studied mechanics and mathematics. In 1619 he joined the Bavarian Army but was rarely involved in combat, instead he traveled throughout Europe from 1620 to 1628.

In 1629 he settled at the university of Franeker where he wrote his first book of philosophical ideas called Meditations on First Philosophy. He wrote Le Monde from 1629 to 1633, a book that expressed his ideas and gave physical theories of the universe, but was never published. In 1637 he published Discours de la method pour bien conduire

sa rason et chercher la verite dans les sciences, which included three appendices: La Dioptrique, Les Meteores, and La Geometrie. Principia, published in 1644, was basically his...