View source for René Descartes

{{Short description|French philosopher (1596–1650)}}
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{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2023}}
{{Infobox philosopher
| region           = {{tree list}}
* [[Western philosophy]]
** [[Dutch philosophy]]
** [[French philosophy]]{{tree list/end}}
| era              = {{plainlist|
* [[17th-century philosophy]]
* [[Age of Enlightenment]]
}}
| image            = Frans Hals - Portret van René Descartes.jpg
| caption          = Portrait after [[Frans Hals]]{{NoteTag|Although the uncertain authorship of this most iconic portrait of Descartes was traditionally attributed to Frans Hals, there is no record of their meeting. During the 20th century the assumption was widely challenged.<ref>[[Steven Nadler|Nadler, Steven]], [https://books.google.com/books?id=a2yYDwAAQBAJ ''The Philosopher, The Priest, and The Painter: A Portrait of Descartes''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201115073610/https://books.google.com/books?id=a2yYDwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover |date=15 November 2020 }} (Princeton, NJ: [[Princeton University Press]], 2013), pp.&nbsp;174–198.</ref>}}
| name             = René Descartes
| birth_date       = {{Birth date text|31 March 1596}}
| birth_place      = [[Descartes, Indre-et-Loire|La Haye en Touraine]], France
| death_date       = {{death-date and age|11 February 1650|31 March 1596}}
| death_place      = [[Stockholm]], Sweden
| education        = {{plainlist|
* [[Collège Royal Henry-Le-Grand]] (1607–1614)
* [[University of Poitiers]] ([[LL.B.]], 1616)
* [[University of Franeker]] (no degree)
* [[Leiden University]] (no degree)
}}
| nationality      = <!-- use only when necessary per [[WP:INFONAT]] -->
| school_tradition = {{plainlist|
* [[Foundationalism]]
* [[Innatism]]
* [[Mechanism (philosophy)|Mechanism]]
* [[Rationalism]]
}}
| main_interests   = [[Epistemology]], [[metaphysics]], [[mathematics]], [[physics]], [[cosmology]], [[ethics]]
| notable_ideas = {{collapsible list|title={{nobold|''See list''}}|{{tree list}}
* ''[[Cogito ergo sum]]''
* [[Cartesian doubt|Method of doubt]]
* [[Subject (philosophy)|Subjectivity]]
* [[Method of normals]]
* [[Analytic geometry]]
* [[Cartesian coordinate system]]
* [[Imaginary number]]
* [[Mind–body problem]]
* [[Cartesian dualism]]
** [[Interactionism (philosophy of mind)|Interactionism]]
** [[Trialism]]
* [[Cartesian circle]]
* [[Foundationalism]]
* ''[[Mathesis universalis]]''
* [[Folium of Descartes]]
* ''[[Evil demon|Deus deceptor]]''
* [[Dream argument]]
* [[Conservation of momentum]] (''quantitas motus'')
* [[Balloonist theory]]
* [[Descartes' Rule of Signs]]
* [[Wax argument]]
* [[Trademark argument]]
* [[Causal adequacy principle]]
* ''[[Mental substance|Res cogitans]]''/''[[res extensa]]'' distinction
* [[Conatus#In Descartes|Conatus]]{{tree list/end}}

| thesis_title     = Untitled LL.B. thesis
| thesis_url       = https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/descartes-works/tlatin.html
| thesis_year      = 1616
| children         = [[Francine Descartes]]
| signature        = [[File:Firma Descartes.svg|150px]]
}}
}}
'''René Descartes''' ({{IPAc-en||d|eɪ|ˈ|k|ɑːr|t}} {{respell|day|KART}}, {{IPAc-en|alsoUK|ˈ|d|eɪ|k|ɑːr|t}} {{respell|DAY|kart}};<ref name="longman">{{cite book |last=Wells|first=John|title=Longman Pronunciation Dictionary|date= 2008|publisher=Pearson Longman|isbn=978-1-4058-8118-0|edition=3rd|author-link=John C. Wells }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Descartes|url=https://www.collinsdictionary.com/amp/english/descartes|work=[[Collins English Dictionary]]|publisher=[[HarperCollins]]|access-date=12 March 2019 }}</ref> 31 March 1596 – 11 February 1650) was a French philosopher, scientist, and mathematician, widely considered a seminal figure in the emergence of [[modern philosophy]] and [[Modern science|science]]. Mathematics was paramount to his method of inquiry, and he connected the previously separate fields of [[geometry]] and [[algebra]] into [[analytic geometry]].

Refusing to accept the authority of previous philosophers, Descartes frequently set his views apart from the philosophers who preceded him. In the opening section of the ''[[Passions of the Soul]]'', an [[Early modern period|early modern]] treatise on emotions, Descartes goes so far as to assert that he will write on this topic "as if no one had written on these matters before." His best known philosophical statement is "{{langx|la|link=no|[[cogito, ergo sum]]|label=none}}" ("I think, therefore I am," {{langx|fr|link=no|"Je pense, donc je suis"}}).

Descartes has often been called the father of modern philosophy, and he is largely seen as responsible for the increased attention given to [[epistemology]] in the 17th century.<ref name="Russell2004p516">[[Bertrand Russell]] (2004) [https://books.google.com/books?id=Ey94E3sOMA0C&pg=PA516 ''History of western philosophy''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210816214227/https://books.google.com/books?id=Ey94E3sOMA0C&pg=PA516 |date=16 August 2021 }} pp. 511, 516–17.</ref> He was one of the key figures in the [[Scientific Revolution]], and his ''[[Meditations on First Philosophy]]'' and other philosophical works continue to be studied. His influence in mathematics is equally apparent, being the namesake of the [[Cartesian coordinate system]]. Descartes is also credited as the father of analytic geometry, which facilitated the discovery of infinitesimal [[calculus]] and [[Mathematical analysis|analysis]].

==Life==

===Early life===
[[File:Maison de René DESCARTES - Jean-Charles GUILLO.JPG|thumb|left|Where Descartes was born in [[Descartes, Indre-et-Loire|La Haye en Touraine]].|192x192px]]

René Descartes was born in [[Descartes, Indre-et-Loire|La Haye en Touraine]], [[Touraine|Province of Touraine]] (now [[Descartes, Indre-et-Loire|Descartes]], [[Indre-et-Loire]]), France, on 31 March 1596.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book|title=Math and Mathematicians: The History of Math Discoveries Around the World; Vol. 1|last=Bruno|first=Leonard C.|author-link=Leonard C. Bruno|date=2003|orig-year=1999|publisher=U X L|others=Baker, Lawrence W.|isbn=978-0-7876-3813-9|location=Detroit, Mich.|page=[https://archive.org/details/mathmathematicia00brun/page/99 99]|oclc=41497065|url=https://archive.org/details/mathmathematicia00brun|url-access=registration}}</ref> In May 1597, his mother Jeanne Brochard, died a few days after giving birth to a still-born child.<ref name=":2" /><ref>{{Cite book |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/cartesian-metaphysics/scepticism-scholasticism-and-the-origins-of-descartess-philosophy/8D76D0E0D4307ADA49F5AB6DF30BB060 |title=Scepticism, Scholasticism, and the origins of Descartes's philosophy (Chapter 2) |chapter=Scepticism, Scholasticism, and the origins of Descartes's philosophy |date=2000 |pages=27–54 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |doi=10.1017/CBO9780511487309.004 |isbn=978-0521452915 |access-date=22 August 2022 |archive-date=22 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220822064758/https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/cartesian-metaphysics/scepticism-scholasticism-and-the-origins-of-descartess-philosophy/8D76D0E0D4307ADA49F5AB6DF30BB060 |url-status=live }}</ref> Descartes's father, Joachim, was a member of the [[Parlement of Rennes]] at [[Rennes]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Rodis-Lewis |first=Geneviève |chapter=Descartes' Life and the Development of His Philosophy |editor-last=Cottingham |editor-first=John |editor-link=John Cottingham |title=The Cambridge Companion to Descartes |year=1992 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-36696-0 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Prhr9FBdQ_MC |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=Prhr9FBdQ_MC&pg=PA22 22] |access-date=27 January 2016 |archive-date=1 February 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170201123550/https://books.google.com/books?id=Prhr9FBdQ_MC |url-status=live }}</ref>{{rp|22}} René lived with his grandmother and with his great-uncle. Although the Descartes family was Roman Catholic, the [[Poitou]] region was controlled by the Protestant [[Huguenots]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://all-history.org/world_literature/descartes1.htm |title=All-history.org |access-date=23 December 2014 |archive-date=29 January 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150129035839/http://all-history.org/world_literature/descartes1.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref> In 1607, late because of his fragile health, he entered the [[Jesuit]] [[Collège Royal Henry-Le-Grand]] at [[La Flèche]],{{sfn|Clarke|2006|}}<ref>{{Cite web|title=Descartes, Rene {{!}} Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy|url=https://iep.utm.edu/descarte/|access-date=27 July 2021|language=en-US|archive-date=28 May 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100528030333/https://iep.utm.edu/descarte/|url-status=live}}</ref> where he was introduced to mathematics and physics.<ref name=":3">{{Cite book|last=Bruno|first=Leonard C.|url=https://archive.org/details/mathmathematicia00brun|title=Math and Mathematicians: The History of Math Discoveries Around the World; Vol. 1|date=2003|publisher=U X L|others=Baker, Lawrence W.|isbn=978-0-7876-3813-9|location=Detroit, Mich.|page=[https://archive.org/details/mathmathematicia00brun/page/100 100]|oclc=41497065|orig-year=1999|url-access=registration}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Porter|first1=Roy|title=The Greatest Benefit to Mankind: A Medical History of Humanity from Antiquity to the Present|publisher=Harper Collins|year=1999|isbn=978-0-00-637454-1|location=Great Britain|page=217|chapter=The New Science|author-link=Roy Porter|orig-year=1997}}</ref> After graduation in 1614, he studied for two years (1615–16) at the [[University of Poitiers]], earning a ''[[Baccalauréat]]'' and ''[[Licentiate (degree)|Licence]]'' in [[Canon law|canon]] and [[Civil law (legal system)|civil law]] in 1616,<ref name=":3" /> in accordance with his father's wishes that he should become a lawyer.<ref>{{cite book |last2=Kaufmann |first2=Walter |last1=Baird |first1=Forrest E. |title=From Plato to Derrida |publisher=Pearson Prentice Hall |year=2008 |location=Upper Saddle River, New Jersey |pages=373–77 |isbn=978-0-13-158591-1 }}</ref> From there, he moved to Paris.

=== Army service ===
{{See also|#Mechanical philosophy}}
In accordance with his ambition to become a professional military officer in 1618, Descartes joined, as a [[mercenary]], the [[Protestant]] [[Dutch States Army]] in [[Breda]] under the command of [[Maurice of Nassau]],<ref name=":3" /> and undertook a formal study of [[military engineering]], as established by [[Simon Stevin]].{{sfn|Gaukroger|1995|page=66}} Descartes, therefore, received much encouragement in Breda to advance his knowledge of mathematics. In this way, he became acquainted with [[Isaac Beeckman]],<ref name=":3" /> the principal of a [[Dordrecht]] school, for whom he wrote the ''Compendium of Music'' (written 1618, published 1650).<ref>McQuillan, J. C. 2016. ''Early Modern Aesthetics''. Lanham, MD: [[Rowman & Littlefield]]. [https://books.google.com/books?id=NObaDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA45 p. 45] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200801014714/https://books.google.com/books?id=NObaDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA45 |date=1 August 2020 }}.</ref>

While in the service of the [[Catholic]] Duke [[Maximilian I, Elector of Bavaria|Maximilian of Bavaria]] from 1619,<ref>{{Cite web|title=René Descartes – Biography|url=https://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Descartes/|access-date=27 September 2020|website=Maths History|language=en|archive-date=19 July 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170719105154/http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Descartes.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Descartes was present at the [[Battle of the White Mountain]] near [[Prague]], in November 1620.<ref>Parker, N. Geoffrey. 2007. "[http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/642395/Battle-of-White-Mountain Battle of White Mountain] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150509044752/http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/642395/Battle-of-White-Mountain |date=9 May 2015 }}" (revised). ''[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]''.</ref><ref>Jeffery, R. 2018. ''Princess Elisabeth of Bohemia: The Philosopher Princess''. Lanham, MD: [[Lexington Books]]. [https://books.google.com/books?id=FUGIDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA68 p. 68] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201108204711/https://books.google.com/books?id=FUGIDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA68 |date=8 November 2020 }}.</ref>

According to [[Adrien Baillet]], on the night of 10–11 November 1619 ([[St. Martin's Day]]), while stationed in [[Neuburg an der Donau]], Descartes shut himself in a room with an "oven" (probably a [[cocklestove]])<ref>Rothkamm, J., ''Institutio Oratoria: Bacon, Descartes, Hobbes, Spinoza'' (Leiden & Boston: [[Brill Publishers|Brill]], 2009), [https://books.google.com/books?id=5bH3_u4g3cMC&pg=PA40 p. 40] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210816214229/https://books.google.com/books?id=5bH3_u4g3cMC&pg=PA40 |date=16 August 2021 }}.</ref> to escape the cold. While within, he had three dreams,<ref name=":4">{{Cite book|title=Math and mathematicians : the history of math discoveries around the world; Vol. 1|last=Bruno|first=Leonard C.|date=2003|orig-year=1999|publisher=U X L|others=Baker, Lawrence W.|isbn=978-0-7876-3813-9|location=Detroit, Mich.|page=[https://archive.org/details/mathmathematicia00brun/page/101 101]|oclc=41497065|url=https://archive.org/details/mathmathematicia00brun|url-access=registration}}</ref> and believed that a divine spirit revealed to him a new philosophy. However, it is speculated that what Descartes considered to be his second dream was actually an episode of [[exploding head syndrome]].<ref name="Otaiku2018">{{cite journal | author = Otaiku AI | year = 2018 | title = Did René Descartes have Exploding Head Syndrome? | journal = J. Clin. Sleep Med. | volume = 14| issue = 4| pages = 675–78| doi = 10.5664/jcsm.7068 | pmid = 29609724 | pmc = 5886445  | issn = 1550-9389 }}</ref> Upon exiting, he had formulated [[analytic geometry]] and the idea of applying the mathematical method to philosophy. He concluded from these visions that the pursuit of science would prove to be, for him, the pursuit of true wisdom and a central part of his life's work.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Durant |first1=Will |author-link1=Will Durant |last2=Durant |first2=Ariel |author-link2=Ariel Durant |title=The Story of Civilization: Part VII, the Age of Reason Begins |year=1961 |publisher=Simon and Schuster |location=New York |isbn=978-0-671-01320-2 |page=[https://archive.org/details/ageofreasonbegin07dura_0/page/637 637] |title-link=The Story of Civilization: Part VII, the Age of Reason Begins }}</ref>{{sfn|Clarke|2006|page=58–59}}

=== Career ===
==== France ====
In 1620, Descartes left the army. He visited [[Basilica della Santa Casa]] in Loreto, then visited various countries before returning to France, and during the next few years, he spent time in Paris. It was there that he composed his first essay on method: ''Regulae ad Directionem Ingenii'' (''[[Rules for the Direction of the Mind]]'').<ref name="Durandin">Durandin, Guy. 1970. ''Les Principes de la Philosophie. Introduction et notes''. Paris: [[Librairie philosophique J. Vrin|Librairie Philosophique J. Vrin]].</ref> He arrived in [[The Hague|La Haye]] in 1623, selling all of his property to invest in [[Bond (finance)|bonds]], which provided a comfortable income for the rest of his life.{{sfn|Gaukroger|1995|page=132}}<ref name=":8" />{{Rp|94}} Descartes was present at the [[siege of La Rochelle]] by [[Cardinal Richelieu]] in 1627 as an observer.<ref name=":8">Shea, William R. 1991. ''The Magic of Numbers and Motion''. Science History Publications.</ref>{{Rp|128}} There, he was interested in the physical properties of the great dike that Richelieu was building and studied mathematically everything he saw during the siege. He also met French mathematician [[Girard Desargues]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Aczel |first=Amir D. |url= |title=Descartes's Secret Notebook: A True Tale of Mathematics, Mysticism, and the Quest to Understand the Universe |date=2006-10-10 |publisher=Crown |isbn=978-0-7679-2034-6 |pages=127 |language=en}}</ref> In the autumn of that year, in the residence of the papal [[nuncio]] [[Giovanni Francesco Guidi di Bagno|Guidi di Bagno]], where he came with [[Marin Mersenne|Mersenne]] and many other scholars to listen to a lecture given by the alchemist, Nicolas de Villiers, Sieur de Chandoux, on the principles of a supposed new philosophy,<ref>Matton, Sylvain, ed. 2013. ''Lettres sur l'or potable suivies du traité De la connaissance des vrais principes de la nature et des mélanges et de fragments d'un Commentaire sur l'Amphithéâtre de la Sapience éternelle de Khunrath'', by Nicolas de Villiers. Paris: Préface de Vincent Carraud.</ref> Cardinal [[Pierre de Bérulle|Bérulle]] urged him to write an exposition of his new philosophy in some location beyond the reach of the Inquisition.<ref>Moote, A. L. 1989. ''Louis XIII, the Just''. [[Oakland, California|Oakland]]: [[University of California Press]]. [https://books.google.com/books?id=ya0wDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA271 pp. 271–72] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210816214232/https://books.google.com/books?id=ya0wDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA271 |date=16 August 2021 }}.</ref>

==== Netherlands ====
[[File:Jan Baptist Weenix - Portrait of René Descartes.jpg|thumb|right|Portrait of René Descartes by [[Jan Baptist Weenix]], 1647–1649]]
Descartes returned to the [[Dutch Republic]] in 1628.<ref name=":4" /> In April 1629, he joined the [[University of Franeker]], studying under [[Adriaan Metius]], either living with a Catholic family or renting the [[Sjaerdemaslot]]. The next year, under the name "Poitevin", he enrolled at [[Leiden University]], which at the time was a Protestant University.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/dossiers/history-of-leiden-university/birds-eye-view | title=A bird's eye view | access-date=3 May 2022 | archive-date=21 September 2021 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210921053655/https://www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/dossiers/history-of-leiden-university/birds-eye-view | url-status=live }}</ref> He studied both mathematics with [[Jacobus Golius]], who confronted him with [[Pappus's hexagon theorem]], and [[astronomy]] with [[Martin van den Hove|Martin Hortensius]].<ref>[[A. C. Grayling|Grayling, A. C.]] 2006. ''Descartes: The Life of René Descartes and Its Place in His Times''. [[Simon & Schuster]]. pp. 151–52.</ref> In October 1630, he had a falling-out with Beeckman, whom he accused of plagiarizing some of his ideas. In Amsterdam, he had a relationship with a servant girl, Helena Jans van der Strom, with whom he had a daughter, [[Francine Descartes|Francine]], who was born in 1635 in [[Deventer]]. She was baptized a Protestant<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IRvIQkLFD60C&dq=descartes+convert+calvinism&pg=PA171 | isbn=978-1567923353 | title=Cogito, Ergo Sum: The Life of René Descartes | year=2007 | publisher=David R. Godine Publisher | access-date=3 May 2022 | archive-date=26 September 2022 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220926153941/https://www.google.com/books/edition/Cogito_Ergo_Sum/IRvIQkLFD60C?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=descartes+convert+calvinism&pg=PA171&printsec=frontcover | url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WVFEEAAAQBAJ&dq=Helena+Jans+van+der+Strom+protestant&pg=PA8 | isbn=978-1633887947 | title=The Wisdom of the Enlightenment | date= 2022 | publisher=Rowman & Littlefield | access-date=3 May 2022 | archive-date=26 September 2022 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220926153941/https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Wisdom_of_the_Enlightenment/WVFEEAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=Helena+Jans+van+der+Strom+protestant&pg=PA8&printsec=frontcover | url-status=live }}</ref> and died of scarlet fever at the age of 5.

Unlike many moralists of the time, Descartes did not deprecate the passions but instead defended them;<ref>{{Cite web |title=Descartes, Rene {{!}} Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy |url=https://iep.utm.edu/rene-descartes/ |access-date=2023-05-10 |language=en-US}}</ref> he wept upon Francine's death in 1640.<ref>{{cite book |last1 = Durant |first1 = Will |last2 = Durant |first2 = Ariel |title = The Story of Civilization: Par VII, the Age of reason Begins |year = 1961 |publisher = Simon and Schuster |location = New York |isbn = 978-0-671-01320-2 |page =[https://archive.org/details/ageofreasonbegin07dura_0/page/638 638] |url = https://archive.org/details/ageofreasonbegin07dura_0/page/638 }}</ref> According to a 2018 biography by Jason Porterfield, "Descartes said that he did not believe that one must refrain from tears to prove oneself a man."<ref>Porterfield, J., ''René Descartes'' (New York: [[Rosen Publishing]], 2018), [https://books.google.com/books?id=UEJgDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA66 p. 66] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210816214228/https://books.google.com/books?id=UEJgDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA66 |date=16 August 2021 }}.</ref> [[Russell Shorto]] speculates that the experience of fatherhood and losing a child formed a turning point in Descartes's work, changing its focus from medicine to a quest for universal answers.<ref>Russell Shorto, ''Descartes' Bones: A Skeletal History of the Conflict Between Faith and Reason'' {{ISBN|978-0-385-51753-9}} (New York: Random House, 2008)</ref>

Despite frequent moves,{{NoteTag|While in the Netherlands he changed his address frequently, living among other places in Dordrecht (1628), [[Franeker]] (1629), Amsterdam (1629–1630), [[Leiden]] (1630), Amsterdam (1630–1632), Deventer (1632–1634), Amsterdam (1634–1635), [[Utrecht (city)|Utrecht]] (1635–1636), Leiden (1636), [[Egmond aan den Hoef|Egmond]] (1636–1638), [[Santpoort]] (1638–1640), Leiden (1640–1641), Endegeest (a castle near [[Oegstgeest]]) (1641–1643), and finally for an extended time in [[Egmond-Binnen]] (1643–1649).}} he wrote all of his major work during his 20-plus years in the Netherlands, initiating a revolution in mathematics and philosophy.{{NoteTag|He had lived with [[Henricus Reneri]] in Deventer and Amsterdam, and had met with [[Constantijn Huygens]] and Vopiscus Fortunatus Plempius; Descartes was interviewed by Frans Burman at Egmond-Binnen in 1648. [[Henricus Regius]], [[Jan Jansz de Jonge Stampioen|Jan Stampioen]], [[Frans van Schooten]], [[Comenius]] and [[Gisbertus Voetius]] were his main opponents.}} In 1633, Galileo was condemned by the [[Italian Inquisition]], and Descartes abandoned plans to publish ''[[The World (Descartes)|Treatise on the World]]'', his work of the previous four years. Nevertheless, in 1637, he published parts of this work in three essays:<ref name=":5">{{cite book |title = Math and mathematicians: the history of math discoveries around the world |volume = 1 |last=Bruno |first = Leonard C. |year=2003 |orig-year=1999 |publisher = U X L |others = Baker, Lawrence W. |isbn=978-0-7876-3813-9 |location = Detroit, MI |page=[https://archive.org/details/mathmathematicia00brun/page/103 103] |oclc=41497065 |url = https://archive.org/details/mathmathematicia00brun |url-access=registration }}</ref> "Les Météores" (The Meteors), "[[La Dioptrique]]" (Dioptrics) and ''[[La Géométrie]]'' (''Geometry''), preceded by an introduction, his famous ''Discours de la méthode'' (''[[Discourse on the Method]]'').<ref name=":5" /> In it, Descartes lays out four rules of thought, meant to ensure that our knowledge rests upon a firm foundation:<ref>Descartes, ''Discourse on the Method'' (Zhubei: Hyweb Technology: 2011), [https://books.google.com/books?id=N04dAwAAQBAJ&pg=PT88 p. 88] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210816214231/https://books.google.com/books?id=N04dAwAAQBAJ&lpg=PP1&hl=cs&pg=PT88 |date=16 August 2021 }}.</ref>

{{Blockquote|The first was never to accept anything for true which I did not know to be such; that is to say, carefully to avoid precipitancy and prejudice, and to comprise nothing more in my judgment than what was presented to my mind so clearly and distinctly as to exclude all ground of doubt.|author=|title=|source=}}

In ''La Géométrie'', Descartes exploited the discoveries he made with [[Pierre de Fermat]]. This later became known as [[Cartesian geometry]].<ref name=":6">{{Cite encyclopedia|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Pierre-de-Fermat|title=Pierre de Fermat {{!}} Biography & Facts|encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica|access-date=14 November 2017|language=en|archive-date=15 November 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171115083548/https://www.britannica.com/biography/Pierre-de-Fermat|url-status=live}}</ref>

Descartes continued to publish works concerning both mathematics and philosophy for the rest of his life. In 1641, he published a metaphysics treatise, ''Meditationes de Prima Philosophia'' (''Meditations on First Philosophy''), written in Latin and thus addressed to the learned.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Watson |first=Richard |title=Meditations {{!}} Definition, Mind-Body Dualism, Cogito, Ontological Argument, Cartesian Circle, & Facts {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Meditations-on-First-Philosophy |access-date=2025-08-30 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}}</ref> It was followed in 1644 by ''Principia Philosophiae'' (''[[Principles of Philosophy]]''),<ref>{{Cite web |last=Swetz |first=Frank |date=November 2014 |title=Mathematical Treasure: Descartes' Principia Philosophiae {{!}} Mathematical Association of America |url=https://old.maa.org/press/periodicals/convergence/mathematical-treasure-descartes-principia-philosophiae |access-date=2025-08-30 |website=old.maa.org}}</ref> a kind of synthesis of the ''Discourse on the Method'' and ''Meditations on First Philosophy''.

In 1643, Cartesian philosophy was condemned at the [[Utrecht University|University of Utrecht]], and Descartes was obliged to flee to the Hague, then eventually to the north of Amsterdam, ultimately settling in [[Egmond-Binnen]].{{cn|date=July 2025}}

Between 1643 and 1649 Descartes lived with his girlfriend at Egmond-Binnen in an inn.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://guinevereglasfurd.com/2015/06/30/who-was-helena-jans/comment-page-1/ | title=Who was Helena Jans? | date=30 June 2015 }}</ref> Descartes became friendly with Anthony Studler van Zurck, lord of [[Bergen, North Holland|Bergen]], and participated in the design of his mansion and estate.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.herenvanholland.nl/studler-van-zurck-heer-van-bergen/ | title=Anthonis Studler van Zurck, Vlaams koopman en heer van Bergen | date=11 February 2016 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.leeskost.nl/2016/05/ongelijke-vriendschap/ | title=Ongelijke vriendschap &#124; LeesKost }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://onh.nl/verhaal/het-landhuis-t-oude-hof-te-bergen | title=Het landhuis 't Oude Hof te Bergen }}</ref> He also met [[Dirck Rembrantsz van Nierop]], a mathematician and [[surveyor]].<ref>{{cite book
|editor=Marlise Rijks|title=The correspondence of Dirck Rembrantsz van Nierop (1610-1682) |year=2012 |publisher=Huygens ING|location=The Hague |isbn=9789087592714 |url=https://researchportal.vub.be/en/publications/the-correspondence-of-dirck-rembrantsz-van-nierop-1610-1682}}</ref> He was so impressed by Van Nierop's knowledge that he even brought him to the attention of [[Constantijn Huygens]] and Frans van Schooten.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://flessenpostuitegmond.nl/nieuw-boek-peter-van-den-berg-de-schoenmaker-en-de-filosoof/ | title=Nieuw boek Peter van den Berg: De Schoenmaker en de Filosoof | date=3 June 2022 }}</ref>

Descartes began (through Alfonso Polloti, an Italian general in Dutch service) a six-year correspondence with [[Elisabeth of the Palatinate|Princess Elisabeth of Bohemia]], devoted mainly to moral and psychological subjects.<ref>Harth, E., ''Cartesian Women: Versions and Subversions of Rational Discourse in the Old Regime'', ([[Ithaca, New York|Ithaca]]: [[Cornell University Press]], 1992), [https://books.google.com/books?id=9Mpe59dmSfEC&pg=PA67 pp. 67–77] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210816214230/https://books.google.com/books?id=9Mpe59dmSfEC&pg=PA67 |date=16 August 2021 }}.</ref> Connected with this correspondence, in 1649 he published ''Les Passions de l'âme'' (''[[The Passions of the Soul]]''), which he dedicated to the Princess. A French translation of ''Principia Philosophiae'', prepared by Abbot Claude Picot, was published in 1647. This edition was also dedicated to Princess Elisabeth. In [[Principles of Philosophy#Preface to the French edition|the preface to the French edition]], Descartes praised true philosophy as a means to attain wisdom. He identifies four ordinary sources to reach wisdom and finally says that there is a fifth, better and more secure, consisting in the search for first causes.<ref>Blom, John J., ''Descartes, His Moral Philosophy and Psychology''. New York University Press, 1978. {{ISBN|0-8147-0999-0}}</ref>

====Sweden====
[[File:Dispute-of-queen-cristina-vasa-and-rene-descartes.png|thumb|250px|right|Descartes in conversation with [[Queen Christina of Sweden|Queen Christina]] in Stockholm]]

By 1649, Descartes had become one of Europe's most famous philosophers and scientists.<ref name=":5" /> That year, [[Queen Christina of Sweden]] invited him to her court to organize a new scientific academy and tutor her in his ideas about love.<ref name="Åkerman 1991">{{cite book |author-last=Åkerman |author-first=Susanna |year=1991 |title=Queen Christina of Sweden and her Circle: The Transformation of a Seventeenth-Century Philosophical Libertine |chapter=Christina and Descartes: Disassembling A Myth |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=E-V5DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA44 |location=[[Leiden]] and [[Boston]] |publisher=[[Brill Publishers]] |series=Brill's Studies in Intellectual History |volume=21 |pages=44–69 |doi=10.1163/9789004246706_004 |isbn=978-90-04-24670-6 |issn=0920-8607}}</ref> Descartes accepted, and moved to the [[Swedish Empire]] in the middle of winter.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Math and mathematicians: the history of math discoveries around the world|last=Bruno|first=Leonard C.|date=2003|orig-year=1999|publisher=U X L|others=Baker, Lawrence W.|isbn=978-0-7876-3813-9|location=Detroit, Mich.|pages=[https://archive.org/details/mathmathematicia00brun/page/103 103]–04|oclc=41497065|url=https://archive.org/details/mathmathematicia00brun|url-access=registration}}</ref> Christina was interested in and stimulated Descartes to publish ''The Passions of the Soul''.<ref name="Smith">{{cite encyclopedia |last=Smith |first=Kurt |title=Descartes' Life and Works |encyclopedia=[[Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy]] |date=Fall 2010 |url=http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/descartes-works/ |access-date=2 May 2005 |archive-date=23 March 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210323211048/https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/descartes-works/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

He was a guest at the house of [[Pierre Chanut]], living on [[Västerlånggatan]], less than 500 meters from Castle [[Tre Kronor (castle)|Tre Kronor]] in Stockholm. There, Chanut and Descartes made observations with a [[Evangelista Torricelli|Torricellian]] mercury barometer.<ref name="Åkerman 1991"/> 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.<ref>''Modern meteorology: a series of six lectures: delivered under the auspices of the Meteorological Society in 1878'', 1879, [https://archive.org/details/modernmeteorolog00mete/page/72/mode/2up?q=Stockholm p. 73].</ref>

=== Death ===
Descartes arranged to tutor Queen Christina after her birthday, three times weekly at 5 a.m. in her cold and draughty castle. However, by 15 January 1650 the Queen had actually met with Descartes only four or five times.<ref name="Åkerman 1991"/> It soon became clear they did not like each other, as she did not care for his [[Mechanical philosophy#Descartes|mechanical philosophy]], nor did he share her interest in [[Ancient Greek language]] and [[Ancient Greek literature|literature]].<ref name="Åkerman 1991"/> On 1 February 1650, he contracted [[pneumonia]] and died on 11 February at Chanut.<ref>{{cite book |title = Math and mathematicians: the history of math discoveries around the world |last=Bruno |first = Leonard C. |year=2003 |orig-year=1999 |publisher = U X L |others = Baker, Lawrence W. |isbn=978-0-7876-3813-9 |location = Detroit, MI |page=[https://archive.org/details/mathmathematicia00brun/page/104 104] |oclc=41497065 |url = https://archive.org/details/mathmathematicia00brun |url-access=registration }}</ref><ref>[https://dwc.knaw.nl/wp-content/bestanden/2012_Rijks-_Correspondence_Van_Nierop.pdf The Correspondence of Dirck Rembrantsz van Nierof, (1610–1682), pp. 61, 84 ]</ref>

According to Chanut, the cause of death was pneumonia, but [[pleurisy|peripneumonia]] according to Christina's physician Johann van Wullen, who was not allowed to bleed him.<ref>{{cite web |title = Il y a des preuves que René Descartes a été assassiné |url = https://www.nouvelobs.com/rue89/rue89-rue89-culture/20100212.RUE5003/il-y-a-des-preuves-que-rene-descartes-a-ete-assassine.html |access-date = 27 September 2020 |website = L'Obs |date = 12 February 2010 |language = fr |archive-date = 20 May 2019 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20190520025901/https://www.nouvelobs.com/rue89/rue89-rue89-culture/20100212.RUE5003/il-y-a-des-preuves-que-rene-descartes-a-ete-assassine.html |url-status = live }}</ref> (The winter seems to have been mild,<ref>{{cite web| url = https://www.int-res.com/articles/cr/17/c017p055.pdf| title = "Severity of winter seasons in the northern Baltic Sea between 1529 and 1990: reconstruction and analysis" by S. Jevrejeva (2001), p. 6, Table 3| access-date = 27 January 2020| archive-date = 9 March 2021| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210309061205/https://www.int-res.com/articles/cr/17/c017p055.pdf| url-status = live}}</ref> except for the second half of January which was harsh as described by Descartes himself; however, "this remark was probably intended to be as much Descartes's take on the intellectual climate as it was about the weather.")<ref name="Smith" />

{{multiple image
|total_width = 400
|image1 = DescartesAshes.jpg
|image2 = Rene Descartes monument in the Adolf Fredriks Kyrka Stockholm 2.jpg
|footer = (left) The tomb of Descartes (middle, with detail of the inscription), in the [[Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés]], Paris; (right) memorial to Descartes, erected in the 1720s, in the Adolf Fredriks kyrka
}}

[[:de:Eike Pies|E. Pies]] has questioned this account, based on a letter by the Doctor van Wullen; however, Descartes had refused his treatment, and more arguments against its veracity have been raised since.<ref>Pies Е., ''Der Mordfall Descartes'', Solingen, 1996, and Ebert Т., ''Der rätselhafte Tod des René Descartes'', Aschaffenburg, Alibri, 2009. French translation: ''L'Énigme de la mort de Descartes'', Paris, Hermann, 2011</ref>

His last words were reported to have been:
{{blockquote|My soul, though has long been held captive. The hour has now come for thee to quit thy prison, to leave the trammels of this body. Then to this separation with joy and courage!<ref>{{cite book |last=Green |first=Jonathon |author-link=Jonathon Green |title=Famous Last Words |publisher=Kyle Cathie |location=Enderby, Leicester |year=1997 |isbn= 978-1856-2626-44 |page=72}}</ref>}}

As a Catholic<ref name="books.google.be">{{cite book |last=Garstein |first=Oskar |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SJxEw4nVDXQC&q=queen+of+sweden+descartes+catholicism&pg=PA510 |title=Rome and the Counter-Reformation in Scandinavia: The Age of Gustavus Adolphus and Queen Christina of Sweden, 1622-1656 |year=1992 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-90-04-09395-9 |language=en |access-date=3 October 2020 |archive-date=3 August 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210803081336/https://books.google.com/books?id=SJxEw4nVDXQC&q=queen+of+sweden+descartes+catholicism&pg=PA510 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="KrR-5EKLSQMC p. 207">{{cite book |last=Rodis-Lewis |first=Geneviève |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KrR-5EKLSQMC&q=descartes+catholic&pg=PA207 |title=Descartes: His Life and Thought |year=1999 |publisher=Cornell University Press |isbn=978-0-8014-8627-2 |language=en |access-date=3 October 2020 |archive-date=25 July 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210725133035/https://books.google.com/books?id=KrR-5EKLSQMC&q=descartes+catholic&pg=PA207 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Gh_BAAAQBAJ p. 107">{{Cite book|last1=Oppy|first1=Graham|author1-link=Graham Oppy|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8Gh_BAAAQBAJ&q=descartes+catholicism&pg=PA107|title=Early Modern Philosophy of Religion: The History of Western Philosophy of Religion, volume 3|last2=Trakakis|first2=N. N.|author2-link=Nick Trakakis|date=2014|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-317-54645-0|language=en|access-date=3 October 2020|archive-date=16 August 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210816024632/https://books.google.com/books?id=8Gh_BAAAQBAJ&q=descartes+catholicism&pg=PA107|url-status=live}}</ref> in a Protestant nation, he was interred in the churchyard of what was to become [[Adolf Fredrik Church]] in Stockholm, where mainly orphans had been buried. His manuscripts came into the possession of [[Claude Clerselier]], Chanut's brother-in-law, and "a devout Catholic who has begun the process of turning Descartes into a saint by cutting, adding and publishing his letters selectively."<ref>{{cite web |url = http://andrefabre.e-monsite.com/pages/histoire-de-la-medecine/descartes-in-sweden.html |title=Andrefabre.e-monsite.com |access-date=21 December 2014 |archive-date=5 November 2014 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20141105143616/http://andrefabre.e-monsite.com/pages/histoire-de-la-medecine/descartes-in-sweden.html |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>[[Richard Watson (philosopher)|Watson, R.]], ''Cogito, Ergo Sum: The Life of René Descartes'' ([[Boston]]: [[David R. Godine, Publisher|David R. Godine]], 2002), [https://books.google.com/books?id=IRvIQkLFD60C&pg=PA137 pp. 137–54] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210725062333/https://books.google.com/books?id=IRvIQkLFD60C&pg=PA137 |date=25 July 2021 }}.</ref>{{rp|137–154}} In 1663, the [[Pope Alexander VII|Pope]] placed Descartes's works on the [[Index Librorum Prohibitorum|''Index of Prohibited Books'']]. In 1666, sixteen years after his death, his remains were taken to France and buried in [[Saint-Étienne-du-Mont]]. In 1671, [[Louis XIV]] prohibited all lectures in [[Cartesianism]]. Although the [[National Convention]] in 1792 had planned to transfer his remains to the [[Panthéon]], he was reburied in the [[Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés]] in 1819, missing a finger and the skull.{{NoteTag|The remains however are not in the tomb in the present day.}} His alleged skull is in the [[Musée de l'Homme]] in Paris,<ref>{{cite web |url = https://strangeremains.com/2015/07/23/the-heads-of-these-5-people-were-stolen-from-their-graves/ |title = 5 historical figures whose heads have been stolen |date = 23 July 2015 |website = Strange Remains |access-date = 29 November 2016 |archive-date = 22 December 2016 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20161222005508/https://strangeremains.com/2015/07/23/the-heads-of-these-5-people-were-stolen-from-their-graves/ |url-status = live }}</ref> but some 2020 researches confirm that it may be a forgery. The original skull was probably divided into pieces in Sweden and given to private collectors; one of those pieces arrived at the [[University of Lund]] in 1691, where it is still preserved.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/descartes-alleged-skull-fragment | title=(Alleged) Piece of Descartes' Skull }}</ref>

==Philosophical work==
{{Descartes}}
{{Further|Cartesianism}}

In his ''Discourse on the Method'', he attempts to arrive at a fundamental set of principles that one can know as true without any doubt. To achieve this, he employed a method called hyperbolic or metaphysical doubt, also sometimes referred to as methodological skepticism or [[Cartesian doubt]]: he rejected any ideas that can be doubted and then re-established them in order to acquire a firm foundation for genuine knowledge.<ref>{{cite web|last=Copenhaver|first=Rebecca|title=Forms of skepticism|url=http://www.lclark.edu/~rebeccac/forms.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050108095032/http://www.lclark.edu/~rebeccac/forms.html|archive-date=8 January 2005|access-date=15 August 2007}}</ref> He relates this to architecture: the top soil is taken away to create a new building or structure. Descartes calls his doubt the soil and new knowledge the buildings. To Descartes, Aristotle's [[foundationalism]] was incomplete and his method of doubt enhances foundationalism.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last=Newman|first=Lex|url=https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2016/entries/descartes-epistemology/|title=Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy|publisher=Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University|year=2016|editor-last=Zalta|editor-first=Edward N.|edition=Winter 2016|access-date=22 February 2017|archive-date=8 March 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210308011100/https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2016/entries/descartes-epistemology/|url-status=live}}</ref>

Initially, Descartes arrives at only a single first principle: he thinks. This is expressed in the Latin phrase in ''the Discourse on Method'' "[[Cogito, ergo sum]]" (English: "I think, therefore I am"), originally written in French, "Je pense, donc je suis."<ref>{{Cite web|title=Cogito, ergo sum {{!}} philosophy|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/cogito-ergo-sum|access-date=28 July 2021|website=Encyclopedia Britannica|language=en|archive-date=16 June 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150616100526/https://www.britannica.com/topic/cogito-ergo-sum|url-status=live}}</ref> Descartes concluded, if he doubted, then something or someone must be doing the doubting; therefore, the very fact that he doubted proved his existence. "The simple meaning of the phrase is that if one is skeptical of existence, that is in and of itself proof that he does exist."<ref>{{cite web|title=Ten books: Chosen by Raj Persuade|publisher=The [[British Journal of Psychiatry]]|url=http://bjp.rcpsych.org/cgi/content/full/181/3/258|access-date=13 November 2007|archive-date=10 November 2003|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20031110060925/http://bjp.rcpsych.org/cgi/content/full/181/3/258|url-status=live}}</ref> These two first principles—I think and I exist—were later confirmed by Descartes's clear and distinct perception (delineated in his Third Meditation from ''The Meditations''): as he clearly and distinctly perceives these two principles, Descartes reasoned, ensures their indubitability.

Descartes concludes that he can be certain that he exists because he thinks, but perceiving his body through the use of the senses is an unreliable evidence. So Descartes determines that the only indubitable knowledge is that he is a ''thinking thing''. Thinking is what he does, and his power must come from his essence. Descartes defines "thought" (''[[List of Latin phrases (C)|cogitatio]]'') as "what happens in me such that I am immediately conscious of it, insofar as I am conscious of it". Thinking is thus every activity of a person of which the person is immediately [[Consciousness|conscious]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Descartes|first=René|title=The Principles of Philosophy|year=1644|volume=IX}}</ref> He gave reasons for thinking that waking thoughts are distinguishable from [[dream argument|dreams]], and that one's mind cannot have been "hijacked" by an [[evil demon]] placing an illusory external world before one's senses.<ref name=":0" />

{{blockquote|And so something that I thought I was seeing with my eyes is grasped solely by the faculty of judgment which is in my mind.<ref>Bardt, C., ''Material and Mind'' (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2019), [https://books.google.com/books?id=yk2rDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA109 p. 109] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210816214231/https://books.google.com/books?id=yk2rDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA109 |date=16 August 2021 }}.</ref>{{rp|109}}}}

In this manner, Descartes proceeds to construct a system of knowledge, discarding [[perception]] as unreliable and, instead, admitting only [[deductive reasoning|deduction]] as a method.<ref name="Preface">{{cite web |last=Descartes |first=René |title=Letter of the Author to the French Translator of the Principles of Philosophy serving for a preface |url=http://www.classicallibrary.org/descartes/principles/preface.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180117122219/http://www.classicallibrary.org/descartes/principles/preface.htm |archive-date=17 January 2018 |access-date=6 December 2011 |translator-last=Veitch |translator-first=John |translator-link=John Veitch (poet)}}</ref>

===Mind–body dualism===
{{Further|Mind–body problem|Mind–body dualism}}
[[File:L'homme V00083 00000004.tif|thumb|''L'homme'' (1664)]]

Descartes, influenced by the [[automaton]]s on display at the [[Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye]] near Paris, investigated the connection between mind and body, and how they interact.<ref>{{cite book
 | last = Olson
 | first = Richard
 | title = Science Deified & Science Defied: The Historical Significance of Science in Western Culture
 | volume = 2
 | year = 1982
 | publisher = University of California Press
 | pages = 33
}}</ref> His main influences for [[Mind–body dualism|dualism]] were [[theology]] and [[physics]].<ref>{{Cite journal |jstor=20013943|title=What Moves the Mind: An Excursion in Cartesian Dualism |last=Watson |first=Richard A. |author-link=Richard Watson (philosopher) |date=January 1982 |journal=[[American Philosophical Quarterly]] |volume=19 |issue=1 |pages=73–81 |publisher=[[University of Illinois Press]]}}</ref> The theory on the dualism of mind and body is Descartes's signature doctrine and permeates other theories he advanced. Known as [[Cartesian dualism]] (or mind–body dualism), his theory on the separation between the mind and the body went on to influence subsequent Western philosophies.<ref>Gobert, R. D., [https://books.google.com/books?id=U8RwsQvrQRgC ''The Mind-Body Stage: Passion and Interaction in the Cartesian Theater''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210816214247/https://books.google.com/books?id=U8RwsQvrQRgC&printsec=frontcover |date=16 August 2021 }} (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2013).</ref> In ''Meditations on First Philosophy'', Descartes attempted to demonstrate the existence of [[God]] and the distinction between the human soul and the body. Humans are a union of mind and body;<ref>{{Cite book|title= The Cambridge Companion to Descartes' Meditations|author=David Cunning |publisher= Cambridge University Press|year=2014 |isbn=978-1-107-72914-8|page=277}}</ref> thus Descartes's dualism embraced the idea that mind and body are distinct but closely joined. While many contemporary readers of Descartes found the distinction between mind and body difficult to grasp, he thought it was entirely straightforward. Descartes employed the concept of ''modes'', which are the ways in which substances exist. In ''[[Principles of Philosophy]]'', Descartes explained, "we can clearly perceive a substance apart from the mode which we say differs from it, whereas we cannot, conversely, understand the mode apart from the substance". To perceive a mode apart from its substance requires an intellectual abstraction,<ref name="David Cunning 2014 278">{{Cite book|title= The Cambridge Companion to Descartes' Meditations|author=David Cunning |publisher= Cambridge University Press|year=2014 |isbn=978-1-107-72914-8|page=278}}</ref> which Descartes explained as follows:

<blockquote>The intellectual abstraction consists in my turning my thought away from one part of the contents of this richer idea the better to apply it to the other part with greater attention. Thus, when I consider a shape without thinking of the substance or the extension whose shape it is, I make a mental abstraction.<ref name="David Cunning 2014 278"/>
</blockquote>

According to Descartes, two substances are really distinct when each of them can exist apart from the other. Thus, Descartes reasoned that God is distinct from humans, and the body and mind of a human are also distinct from one another.<ref>{{Cite book|title= The Cambridge Companion to Descartes's Meditations|author=David Cunning |publisher= Cambridge University Press|year=2014 |isbn=978-1-107-72914-8|page=279}}</ref> He argued that the great differences between body (an extended thing) and mind (an un-extended, immaterial thing) make the two [[Ontology|ontologically]] distinct. According to Descartes's indivisibility argument, the mind is utterly indivisible: because "when I consider the mind, or myself in so far as I am merely a thinking thing, I am unable to distinguish any part within myself; I understand myself to be something quite single and complete."<ref>{{Cite book|title= The Cambridge Companion to Descartes' Meditations|author=David Cunning |publisher= Cambridge University Press|year=2014 |isbn=978-1-107-72914-8|page=280}}</ref>

Moreover, in The ''Meditations'', Descartes discusses a piece of [[wax]] and exposes the single most characteristic doctrine of Cartesian dualism: that the universe contained two radically different kinds of substances—the mind or soul defined as [[Thought|thinking]], and the body defined as matter and unthinking.<ref>{{Cite book|title= Descartes: An Analytic and Historical Introduction|author=Georges Dicker |publisher= OUP |year=2013 |isbn=978-0-19-538032-3|page=86}}</ref> The [[Aristotelianism|Aristotelian philosophy]] of Descartes's day held that the universe was inherently purposeful or teleological. Everything that happened, be it the motion of the [[star]]s or the growth of a [[tree]], was supposedly explainable by a certain purpose, goal or end that worked its way out within nature. Aristotle called this the "final cause", and these final causes were indispensable for explaining the ways nature operated. Descartes's theory of dualism supports the distinction between traditional Aristotelian science and the new science of [[Johannes Kepler|Kepler]] and Galileo, which denied the role of a divine power and "final causes" in its attempts to explain nature. Descartes's dualism provided the philosophical rationale for the latter by expelling the final cause from the physical universe (or ''res extensa'') in favor of the mind (or ''res cogitans''). Therefore, while Cartesian dualism paved the way for modern [[physics]], it also held the door open for religious beliefs about the immortality of the [[soul]].<ref>{{Cite book|title= Descartes: An Analytic and Historical Introduction|author=Georges Dicker |publisher= OUP |year=2013 |isbn=978-0-19-538032-3|page=87}}</ref>

Descartes's dualism of mind and matter implied a concept of human beings. A human was, according to Descartes, a composite entity of mind and body. Descartes gave priority to the mind and argued that the mind could exist without the body, but the body could not exist without the mind. In The ''Meditations'', Descartes even argues that while the mind is a substance, the body is composed only of "accidents".<ref>{{Cite book|title= Descartes: An Analytic and Historical Introduction|author=Georges Dicker |publisher= OUP |year=2013 |isbn=978-0-19-538032-3|page=301}}</ref> But he did argue that mind and body are closely joined:<ref name="Georges Dicker 2013 303">{{Cite book|title= Descartes: An Analytic and Historical Introduction|author=Georges Dicker |publisher= OUP |year=2013 |isbn=978-0-19-538032-3|page=303}}</ref>

<blockquote>Nature also teaches me, by the sensations of pain, hunger, thirst and so on, that I am not merely present in my body as a pilot in his ship, but that I am very closely joined and, as it were, intermingled with it, so that I and the body form a unit. If this were not so, I, who am nothing but a thinking thing, would not feel pain when the body was hurt, but would perceive the damage purely by the intellect, just as a sailor perceives by sight if anything in his ship is broken.<ref name="Georges Dicker 2013 303"/>
</blockquote>

Descartes's discussion on embodiment raised one of the most perplexing problems of his dualism philosophy: What exactly is the relationship of union between the mind and the body of a person?<ref name="Georges Dicker 2013 303"/> Therefore, Cartesian dualism set the agenda for philosophical discussion of the [[mind–body problem]] for many years after Descartes's death.<ref>Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy (online): Descartes and the Pineal Gland.</ref> Descartes argued the theory of [[innate knowledge]] and that all humans were born with knowledge through the higher power of God. It was this theory of innate knowledge that was later combated by philosopher [[John Locke]] (1632–1704), an [[empiricist]].<ref>{{Cite journal |jstor=27532614 |title=John Locke's Contributions to Education |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/27532614.pdf |last=Baldwin |first=Bird T. |date=April 1913 |publisher=[[The Johns Hopkins University Press]] |journal=[[The Sewanee Review]] |volume=21 |issue=2 |pages=177–87 |access-date=22 September 2020 |archive-date=26 September 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220926153940/https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/27532614.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Physiology and psychology===
[[File:Descartes3.jpg|thumb|René Descartes at work]]
In ''The Passions of the Soul'', published in 1649,<ref>{{Cite web|title=17th and 18th Century Theories of Emotions > Descartes on the Emotions (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)|url=https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/emotions-17th18th/LD2Descartes.html#PasMedFre|access-date=29 July 2021|website=The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy|archive-date=3 September 2006|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060903001831/https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/emotions-17th18th/LD2Descartes.html#PasMedFre|url-status=live}}</ref> Descartes discussed the common contemporary belief that the human body contained animal spirits. These animal spirits were believed to be light and roaming fluids circulating rapidly around the nervous system between the brain and the muscles. These animal spirits were believed to affect the human soul, or passions of the soul. Descartes distinguished six basic passions: wonder, love, hatred, desire, joy and sadness. All of these passions, he argued, represented different combinations of the original spirit, and influenced the soul to will or want certain actions. He argued, for example, that fear is a passion that moves the soul to generate a response in the body. In line with his dualist teachings on the separation between the soul and the body, he hypothesized that some part of the brain served as a connector between the soul and the body and singled out the [[pineal gland]] as connector.<ref>{{Cite book|title= A History of Psychology: A Global Perspective: A Global Perspective|author=Eric Shiraev |publisher= Sage|year=2010 |isbn=978-1-4129-7383-0|page=86}}</ref> Descartes argued that signals passed from the ear and the eye to the pineal gland, through animal spirits. Thus different motions in the gland cause various animal spirits. He argued that these motions in the pineal gland are based on God's will and that humans are supposed to want and like things that are useful to them. But he also argued that the animal spirits that moved around the body could distort the commands from the pineal gland, thus humans had to learn how to control their passions.<ref name="Eric Shiraev 2010 87">{{Cite book|title= A History of Psychology: A Global Perspective: A Global Perspective|author=Eric Shiraev |publisher= Sage|year=2010 |isbn=978-1-4129-7383-0|page=87}}</ref>

Descartes advanced a theory on automatic bodily reactions to external events, which influenced 19th-century [[reflex]] theory. He argued that external motions, such as touch and sound, reach the endings of the nerves and affect the animal spirits. For example, heat from fire affects a spot on the skin and sets in motion a chain of reactions, with the animal spirits reaching the brain through the central nervous system, and in turn, animal spirits are sent back to the muscles to move the hand away from the fire.<ref name="Eric Shiraev 2010 87"/> Through this chain of reactions, the automatic reactions of the body do not require a thought process.<ref name="Eric Shiraev 2010 88">{{Cite book|title= A History of Psychology: A Global Perspective: A Global Perspective|author=Eric Shiraev |publisher= Sage|year=2010 |isbn=978-1-4129-7383-0|page=88}}</ref>

Above all, he was among the first scientists who believed that the soul should be subject to scientific investigation. He challenged the views of his contemporaries that the soul was [[Divinity|divine]], thus religious authorities regarded his books as dangerous.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Goudriaan |first=Aza |date=3 September 2020 |title=The Concept of Heresy and the Debates on Descartes' Philosophy |journal=Church History and Religious Culture |volume=100 |issue=2–3 |pages=172–86 |doi=10.1163/18712428-10002001 |s2cid=225257956 |issn=1871-241X |doi-access=free |hdl=1871.1/f533604a-2d8d-4700-b8c2-bad504f49d13 |hdl-access=free }}</ref> Descartes's writings went on to form the basis for theories on [[emotion]]s and how [[Cognition|cognitive]] evaluations were translated into affective processes. Descartes believed the brain resembled a working machine and that mathematics, and mechanics could explain complicated processes in it.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Rene-Descartes/Physics-physiology-and-morals | title=René Descartes - Philosophy, Mathematics, Science &#124; Britannica | date=22 August 2024 }}</ref>

=== On animals ===
{{Further information|Animal machine}}
It is generally accepted that Descartes had denied that animals had reason or intelligence, as historians have generally reduced Descartes's interpretation of animals to a comparison to machines.<ref>Waddicor, M. H., ''Montesquieu and the Philosophy of Natural Law'' ([[Leiden]]: [[Martinus Nijhoff Publishers]], 1970), [https://books.google.com/books?id=sLooBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA63 p. 63] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210816214230/https://books.google.com/books?id=sLooBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA63|date=16 August 2021}}.</ref> At a deeper reading, however, questions surface and his interpretation appears more complex: he argued that animals did not lack sensations or perceptions, but these could be explained mechanistically, that is, without any appeals to souls.<ref>{{cite web |date=23 December 1995 |title=''Animal Consciousness'', No. 2. Historical background |url=http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/consciousness-animal/#hist |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080906181245/http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/consciousness-animal/#hist |archive-date=6 September 2008 |access-date=16 December 2014 |publisher=Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy}}</ref> A more attentive investigation of Descartes's study of animals, and their variety, reveals his attention to animal behaviour, an unexpected outcome of his mechanical interpretation.<ref>{{Citation |last=Baldassarri |first=Fabrizio |title=Animals |date=2023 |work=René Descartes’s Natural Philosophy and Particular Bodies |pages=153–184 |editor-last=Baldassarri |editor-first=Fabrizio |url=https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-48663-0_6 |access-date=2025-10-28 |place=Cham |publisher=Springer International Publishing |language=en |doi=10.1007/978-3-031-48663-0_6 |isbn=978-3-031-48663-0|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Whereas humans had a soul, or mind, and were able to feel [[pain]] and [[anxiety]], animals by virtue of not having a soul could not feel pain or anxiety. If animals showed signs of distress then this was to protect the body from damage, but the innate state needed for them to [[Suffering|suffer]] was absent.<ref>Parker, J. V., ''Animal Minds, Animal Souls, Animal Rights'' ([[Lanham, Maryland|Lanham]]: [[University Press of America]], 2010), p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=Sh2AQTDV5DQC&pg=PA16 16] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210816214246/https://books.google.com/books?id=Sh2AQTDV5DQC&pg=PA16|date=16 August 2021}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=Sh2AQTDV5DQC&pg=PA88 88] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210816214245/https://books.google.com/books?id=Sh2AQTDV5DQC&pg=PA88|date=16 August 2021}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=Sh2AQTDV5DQC&pg=PA99 99] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210816214239/https://books.google.com/books?id=Sh2AQTDV5DQC&pg=PA99|date=16 August 2021}}.</ref> Although Descartes's views were not universally accepted, they became prominent in Europe and North America, allowing humans to treat animals with impunity. The view that animals were quite separate from humanity and merely [[machine]]s allowed for the [[Cruelty to animals|maltreatment of animals]], and was sanctioned in law and societal norms until the middle of the 19th century.<ref>Gaukroger, S., ''Descartes' System of Natural Philosophy'' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), [https://books.google.com/books?id=V14lWzINUv4C&pg=PA180 pp. 180–214] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210816214242/https://books.google.com/books?id=V14lWzINUv4C&pg=PA180|date=16 August 2021}}.</ref>{{rp|180–214}} The publications of [[Charles Darwin]] would eventually erode the Cartesian view of animals.<ref>Spencer, J., {{"'}}Love and Hatred are Common to the Whole Sensitive Creation': Animal Feeling in the Century before Darwin," in A. Richardson, ed., ''After Darwin: Animals, Emotions, and the Mind'' (Amsterdam and New York: [[Rodopi (publisher)|Rodopi]], 2013),
[https://books.google.com/books?id=3imLAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA37 p. 37] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210816214237/https://books.google.com/books?id=3imLAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA37|date=16 August 2021}}.</ref>{{rp|37}} Darwin argued that the continuity between humans and other species suggested the possibility of animal suffering.<ref>{{Cite book |author=Workman, L. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rz8dBQAAQBAJ&pg=PT177 |title=Charles Darwin: The Shaping of Evolutionary Thinking |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |year=2013 |isbn=978-1-137-31323-2 |page=177 |author-link=Lance Workman |access-date=19 August 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210816214235/https://books.google.com/books?id=rz8dBQAAQBAJ&pg=PT177 |archive-date=16 August 2021 |url-status=live}}</ref>{{rp|177}}

=== Moral philosophy ===
For Descartes, [[ethics]] was a science, the highest and most perfect of them. Like the rest of the sciences, ethics had its roots in metaphysics.<ref name="Preface"/> In this way, he argues for the existence of God, investigates the place of man in nature, formulates the theory of mind–body dualism, and defends [[free will]]. However, as he was a convinced rationalist, Descartes clearly states that reason is sufficient in the search for the goods that individuals should seek, and [[virtue]] consists in the correct reasoning that should guide their actions. Nevertheless, the quality of this reasoning depends on knowledge and mental condition. For this reason, he said that a complete moral philosophy should include the study of the body.<ref>Pickavé, M., & [[Lisa Shapiro|Shapiro, L.]], eds., ''Emotion and Cognitive Life in Medieval and Early Modern Philosophy'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012), [https://books.google.com/books?id=oDZpAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA189 p. 189] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210816214236/https://books.google.com/books?id=oDZpAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA189 |date=16 August 2021 }}.</ref>{{rp|189}} He discussed this subject in the correspondence with [[Elisabeth of the Palatinate|Princess Elisabeth of Bohemia]], and as a result wrote his work ''The Passions of the Soul'', that contains a study of the [[Psychosomatic medicine|psychosomatic]] processes and reactions in man, with an emphasis on emotions or passions.<ref name="Blom">Blom, John J., Descartes. His moral philosophy and psychology. New York University Press. 1978. {{isbn|0-8147-0999-0}}</ref> His works about human passion and emotion would be the basis for the philosophy of his followers, and would have a lasting impact on ideas concerning what literature and art should be, specifically how it should invoke emotion.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Scientific Revolution A Brief History with Documents|last=Jacob|first=Margaret C.|publisher=Bedford/St. Martin's|year=2009|isbn=978-0-312-65349-1|location=Boston|pages=16–17}}</ref>

The moral writings of Descartes came at the last part of his life, but earlier, in his ''Discourse on the Method'', he adopted three maxims to be able to act while he put all his ideas into doubt. Those maxims are known as his [[Discourse on the Method#Part III: Morals, and Maxims accepted while conducting Method|"Provisional Morals"]].{{cn|date=July 2025}}

=== God ===
In the third and fifth ''Meditation'', Descartes offers [[Proof (truth)|proofs]] of a benevolent God (the [[trademark argument]] and the [[ontological argument#René Descartes|ontological argument]] respectively). Descartes has faith in the account of reality his senses provide him, since he believed that God provided him with a working mind and [[Sensory nervous system|sensory system]] and does not desire to deceive him. From this supposition, however, Descartes finally establishes the possibility of acquiring knowledge about the world based on deduction and perception. Regarding [[epistemology]], therefore, Descartes can be said to have contributed such ideas as a conception of foundationalism and the possibility that [[reason]] is the only reliable method of attaining knowledge. Descartes, however, was very much aware that experimentation was necessary to verify and validate theories.<ref name="Preface"/>

Descartes invokes his [[causal adequacy principle]]<ref>[[Georges Dicker|Dicker, G.]], ''Descartes: An Analytical and Historical Introduction'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013), [https://books.google.com/books?id=UohoAgAAQBAJ&pg=PT138 pp. 118ff] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210816214233/https://books.google.com/books?id=UohoAgAAQBAJ&pg=PT138 |date=16 August 2021 }}.</ref> to support his trademark argument for the existence of God, quoting Lucretius in defence: ''"Ex nihilo nihil fit"'', meaning "[[Creation ex materia|Nothing comes from nothing]]" ([[Lucretius]]).<ref>{{cite book|last=Carus|first=Lucretius|title=De Rerum Natura|date=1947|publisher=Oxford University Press|pages=146–482|author-link=Lucretius}}</ref> The argument is "that our idea of perfection is related to its perfect origin (God), just as a stamp or trademark is left in an article of workmanship by its maker."<ref>{{Cite journal|title=Trademark argument|url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803105212460|access-date=29 July 2021|journal=Oxford Reference|language=en|archive-date=23 October 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171023105416/https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803105212460|url-status=live}}</ref> In the fifth Meditation, Descartes presents a version of the ontological argument which is founded on the possibility of thinking the "idea of a being that is supremely perfect and infinite," and suggests that "of all the ideas that are in me, the idea that I have of God is the most true, the most clear and distinct."<ref>Descartes, Rene "Meditations on First Philosophy, 3rd Ed., Translated from Latin by: Donald A. Cress</ref>

Descartes' attempt to ground theological beliefs on reason encountered intense opposition in his time. [[Blaise Pascal|Pascal]] regarded Descartes's views as a rationalist and mechanist, and accused him of [[deism]]: "I cannot forgive Descartes; in all his philosophy, Descartes did his best to dispense with God. But Descartes could not avoid prodding God to set the world in motion with a snap of his lordly fingers; after that, he had no more use for God," while a contemporary, [[Martin Schoock]], accused him of [[Atheism|atheist]] beliefs, though Descartes had provided an explicit critique of atheism in his ''Meditations''. The Catholic Church prohibited his books in 1663.<ref name="Descartes, René 2009">Descartes, René. (2009). ''Encyclopædia Britannica 2009 Deluxe Edition''. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica.</ref><ref>Edward C. Mendler, ''False Truths: The Error of Relying on Authority'', p. 16</ref><ref>Peterson, L. L., ''American Trinity: Jefferson, Custer, and the Spirit of the West'' ([[Helena, Montana|Helena, MT]]: Sweetgrass Books, 2017), [https://books.google.com/books?id=uKIoDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA274 p. 274] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210816214251/https://books.google.com/books?id=uKIoDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA274 |date=16 August 2021 }}.</ref>{{rp|274}}

Descartes also wrote a response to [[Philosophical skepticism|external world skepticism]]. Through this method of skepticism, he does not doubt for the sake of doubting but to achieve concrete and reliable information. In other words, certainty. He argues that sensory [[perception]]s come to him involuntarily, and are not willed by him. They are external to his senses, and according to Descartes, this is evidence of the existence of something outside of his mind, and thus, an external world. Descartes goes on to argue that the things in the external world are material by arguing that God would not deceive him as to the ideas that are being transmitted, and that God has given him the "propensity" to believe that such ideas are caused by material things. Descartes also believes a substance is something that does not need any assistance to function or exist. Descartes further explains how only God can be a true "substance". But minds are substances, meaning they need only God for it to function. The mind is a thinking substance. The means for a thinking substance stem from ideas.<ref name=":1">{{cite web|url=http://www.iep.utm.edu/descarte/|title=Descartes, Rene {{!}} Internet Encyclopaedia of Philosophy|website=www.iep.utm.edu|language=en-US|access-date=22 February 2017|archive-date=1 November 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121101020931/http://www.iep.utm.edu/descarte/|url-status=live}}</ref>

Descartes steered clear of theological questions, restricting his attention to showing that there is no incompatibility between his metaphysics and theological orthodoxy. He avoided trying to demonstrate theological dogmas metaphysically. When challenged that he had not established the immortality of the soul merely in showing that the soul and the body are distinct substances, he replied, "I do not take it upon myself to try to use the power of human reason to settle any of those matters which depend on the free will of God."{{sfn|Gaukroger|1995|page=355–56}}

== Mathematics ==

===''x'' for unknown; exponential notation===
{{Main|Exponentiation#History}}
Descartes "invented the convention of representing unknowns in equations by ''x'', ''y'', and ''z'', and knowns by ''a'', ''b'', and ''c''". He also "pioneered the standard notation" that uses [[Subscript and superscript|superscripts]] to show the powers or exponents; for example, the 2 used in x<sup>2</sup> to indicate x squared.<ref>René Descartes, ''Discourse de la Méthode'' (Leiden, Netherlands): Jan Maire, 1637, appended book: ''La Géométrie'', book one, [http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b86069594/f383.image p. 299.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171008182014/http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b86069594/f383.image|date=8 October 2017}} From p. 299: ''" ... Et ''aa'', ou ''a''<sup>2</sup>, pour multiplier ''a'' par soy mesme; Et ''a''<sup>3</sup>, pour le multiplier encore une fois par ''a'', & ainsi a l'infini; ... "'' ( ... and ''aa'', or ''a''<sup>2</sup>, in order to multiply ''a'' by itself; and ''a''<sup>3</sup>, in order to multiply it once more by ''a'', and thus to infinity; ... )</ref><ref>[[Tom Sorell|Sorell, T.]], ''Descartes: A Very Short Introduction'' (2000). New York: Oxford University Press. [https://books.google.com/books?id=kCNz9Nbe2JQC&pg=PT19 p. 19] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210816214234/https://books.google.com/books?id=kCNz9Nbe2JQC&pg=PT19|date=16 August 2021}}.</ref>{{rp|19}}

=== Analytic geometry ===
{{Main|Analytic geometry}}
{{See also|Equation#Analytic geometry|Algebraic geometry#History}}[[File:Cartesian coordinates 2D.svg|thumb|A Cartesian coordinates graph, using his invented ''x'' and ''y'' axes]]

One of Descartes's most enduring legacies was his development – together with [[Pierre de Fermat]] – of Cartesian or [[analytic geometry]], which uses algebra to describe geometry; the [[Cartesian coordinate system]] is named after him.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Katz |first1=V. J. | authorlink=Victor J. Katz|date=2008 |title=A History of Mathematics |edition=2nd |publisher=Pearson |page=473}}</ref> Descartes' work on geometry was written to demonstrate its application to correct reasoning he discussed in the ''[[Discourse on the Method]]'', which consists of reasoning based on self-evident principles.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Katz |first1=V. J. | authorlink=Victor J. Katz|date=2008 |title=A History of Mathematics |edition=2nd |publisher=Pearson |page=478}}</ref> He was first to assign a fundamental place for algebra in the system of knowledge, using it as a method to automate or mechanize reasoning, particularly about abstract, unknown quantities.<ref>[[Stephen Gaukroger|Gaukroger, S.]], "The nature of abstract reasoning: philosophical aspects of Descartes' work in algebra", in [[John Cottingham|J. Cottingham]], ed., ''The Cambridge Companion to Descartes'' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992), [https://books.google.com/books?id=Prhr9FBdQ_MC&pg=PA91 pp. 91–114] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210816214237/https://books.google.com/books?id=Prhr9FBdQ_MC&pg=PA91|date=16 August 2021}}.</ref>{{rp|91–114}} 

Both Descartes and Fermat were inspired by the works of the Ancient Greek mathematicians [[Pappus of Alexandria]] and [[Apollonius of Perga]], especially by their techniques of analysis.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Katz |first1=V. J. | authorlink=Victor J. Katz|date=2008 |title=A History of Mathematics |edition=2nd |publisher=Pearson |page=473}}</ref> Crucial for their work was also the symbolic algebra of [[François Viète]] . The step that their predecessors failed to take was using coordinates to study the relationship between geometry and algebra.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Katz |first1=V. J. | authorlink=Victor J. Katz|date=2008 |title=A History of Mathematics |edition=2nd |publisher=Pearson |page=478}}</ref> 

European mathematicians had previously viewed geometry as a more fundamental form of mathematics, serving as the foundation of algebra. Algebraic rules were given geometric proofs by mathematicians such as [[Luca Pacioli|Pacioli]], [[Gerolamo Cardano|Cardano]], [[Niccolò Fontana Tartaglia|Tartaglia]] and [[Lodovico Ferrari|Ferrari]]. Equations of [[Degree of a polynomial|degree]] higher than the third were regarded as unreal, because a three-dimensional form, such as a cube, occupied the largest dimension of reality. Descartes professed that the abstract quantity ''a<sup>2</sup>'' could represent length as well as an area. This was in opposition to the teachings of mathematicians such as [[François Viète]], who insisted that a second power must represent an area.{{cn|date=July 2025}}

Although Descartes did not pursue the subject, he preceded [[Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz]] in envisioning a more general science of algebra or "universal mathematics", as a precursor to [[Mathematical logic|symbolic logic]], that could encompass logical principles and methods symbolically, and mechanize general reasoning.<ref>[[Morris Kline]], ''Mathematical Thought from Ancient to Modern Times'', Vol. 1 (1972). New York & Oxford: Oxford University Press. [https://books.google.com/books?id=wKsYrT691yIC&pg=PT280 pp. 280–81] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211216164107/https://books.google.com/books?id=wKsYrT691yIC&pg=PT280|date=16 December 2021}}.</ref>{{rp|280–281}}

=== Influence on Newton's mathematics ===
It is often said that Descartes had the most influence of anyone on the young [[Isaac Newton]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Janiak |first=Andrew |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/newton-as-philosopher/1BF18C6EF66B5B8C978DD5C57D21998C |title=Newton as Philosopher |date=2008 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-86286-8 |location=Cambridge |pages=8 |doi=10.1017/cbo9780511481512}}</ref> Descartes's influence extended not directly from his original French edition of ''La Géométrie'', however, but rather from [[Frans van Schooten]]'s expanded second Latin edition of the work.<ref>[[Richard S. Westfall|Westfall, R. S.]], ''Never at Rest: A Biography of Isaac Newton'' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1980), [https://books.google.com/books?id=3ngEugMMa9YC&pg=PT100 p. 100] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210816214236/https://books.google.com/books?id=3ngEugMMa9YC&pg=PT100|date=16 August 2021}}.</ref>{{rp|100}} Newton continued Descartes's work on [[cubic equation]]s, which freed the subject from the fetters of the Greek perspectives. The most important concept was his very modern treatment of single variables.<ref>Whiteside, D. T., "Newton the Mathematician", in Z. Bechler, ed., ''Contemporary Newtonian Research'' (Berlin/Heidelberg: Springer, 1982), [https://books.google.com/books?id=LP3nCAAAQBAJ&pg=PA109 pp. 109–29] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210816214228/https://books.google.de/books?id=LP3nCAAAQBAJ&pg=PA109|date=16 August 2021}}.</ref>{{rp|109–129}}

==== The basis of calculus ====
Descartes's work provided the basis for the [[calculus]] developed by [[Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz|Leibniz]] and [[Isaac Newton|Newton]], who applied the infinitesimal calculus to the [[Tangent#Analytical approach|tangent line problem]], thus permitting the evolution of that branch of modern mathematics.<ref>{{cite book |last=Gullberg |first=Jan |url=https://archive.org/details/mathematicsfromb1997gull |title=Mathematics From The Birth of Numbers |publisher=W.W. Norton |year=1997 |isbn=978-0-393-04002-9 |author-link=Jan Gullberg |url-access=registration}}</ref> His [[Descartes' rule of signs|rule of signs]] is also a commonly used method to determine the number of positive and negative roots of a polynomial.

== Physics ==

=== Mechanics ===

==== Mechanical philosophy ====
{{Main|Mechanism (philosophy)#Mechanical philosophy}}{{See also|#Army service|Corpuscularianism}}
The beginning of Descartes's interest in physics is accredited to the amateur scientist and mathematician [[Isaac Beeckman]], whom he met in 1618, and who was at the forefront of a new school of thought known as [[mechanical philosophy]]. With this foundation of reasoning, Descartes formulated many of his theories on [[Geometric mechanics|mechanical and geometric physics]].<ref name="Slowik">{{cite encyclopedia |title=Descartes' Physics |encyclopedia=Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy Archive |url=https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2017/entries/descartes-physics/ |access-date=1 October 2018 |last=Slowik |first=Edward |date=22 August 2017 |editor=Edward N. Zalta |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190318080638/https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2017/entries/descartes-physics/ |archive-date=18 March 2019 |url-status=live}}</ref> It is said that they met when both were looking at a placard that was set up in the Breda marketplace, detailing a mathematical problem to be solved. Descartes asked Beeckman to translate the problem from Dutch to French.{{sfn|Gaukroger|1995|page=Chapter 3}} In their following meetings Beeckman interested Descartes in his corpuscularian approach to mechanical theory, and convinced him to devote his studies to a mathematical approach to nature.<ref name="porter" />{{sfn|Gaukroger|1995|page=Chapter 3}} In 1628, Beeckman also introduced him to many of [[Galileo]]'s ideas.<ref name="porter">Harold J. Cook, in ''The Scientific Revolution in National Context'', [[Roy Porter]], [[Mikuláš Teich]], (eds.), Cambridge University Press, 1992, pages 127–129</ref> Together, they worked on [[free fall]], [[catenary|catenaries]], [[conic section]]s, and [[fluid statics]]. Both believed that it was necessary to create a method that thoroughly linked mathematics and physics.<ref name="Durandin" />

Descartes's mechanical attempt to study nature reveals success and shortcomings. He managed to explain rather well the functioning of so-called inert phenomena, such as the rainbow, the phenomenon of mock suns, the movement of planets and comets, as well as the differentiation of metals, stones and minerals.<ref>{{Citation |last=Baldassarri |first=Fabrizio |title=Metals |date=2023 |work=René Descartes’s Natural Philosophy and Particular Bodies |pages=75–116 |editor-last=Baldassarri |editor-first=Fabrizio |url=https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-48663-0_4 |access-date=2025-10-28 |place=Cham |publisher=Springer International Publishing |language=en |doi=10.1007/978-3-031-48663-0_4 |isbn=978-3-031-48663-0|url-access=subscription }}</ref> This experimental work with metals and inert bodies reveals a different Descartes, investigating nature by means of observations and the uses of microscopes.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Baldassarri |first=Fabrizio |date=December 2020 |title=Descartes and the Dutch: Botanical Experimentation in the Early Modern Period |url=https://direct.mit.edu/posc/article/28/6/657-683/97509 |journal=Perspectives on Science |language=en |volume=28 |issue=6 |pages=657–683 |doi=10.1162/posc_a_00355 |issn=1063-6145|url-access=subscription }}</ref> But there is more, as Descartes tried to explain in the mecahnical terms of his philosophy living nature too - namely, plants and animals.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Baldassarri |first=Fabrizio |date=March 2019 |title=The mechanical life of plants: Descartes on botany |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S000708741800095X/type/journal_article |journal=The British Journal for the History of Science |language=en |volume=52 |issue=1 |pages=41–63 |doi=10.1017/S000708741800095X |issn=0007-0874|url-access=subscription }}</ref> This part shows the complexity of his philosophical programme, but also the most fascinating. On the one hand, Descartes managed to lay the ground for a modern medicine, while on the other hand he failed to establish an overall science of nature.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Brepols - Descartes and Medicine |url=https://www.brepols.net/products/IS-9782503594613-1 |access-date=2025-10-28 |website=www.brepols.net |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Citation |last=Baldassarri |first=Fabrizio |title=Introduction: Lights & Shadows in Descartes?s Medicine |date=January 2023 |work=Descartes and Medicine |volume=9 |issue=9 |pages=21–39 |url=https://www.brepolsonline.net/doi/abs/10.1484/M.DESCARTES-EB.5.132882 |access-date=2025-10-28 |series=The Age of Descartes |publisher=Brepols Publishers |doi=10.1484/m.descartes-eb.5.132882 |isbn=978-2-503-59461-3|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Recently, historians have recognized the importance of Descartes's scientific enterprise in his philosophical work.

==== Anticipating the concept of work ====
Although the concept of work (in physics) was not formally used until 1826, similar concepts existed before then.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Mendelson |first=Kenneth S. |date=2003-02-13 |title=Physical and colloquial meanings of the term "work" |url=https://aapt.scitation.org/doi/abs/10.1119/1.1522707 |journal=American Journal of Physics |language=en |volume=71 |issue=3 |pages=279–281 |doi=10.1119/1.1522707 |bibcode=2003AmJPh..71..279M |issn=0002-9505|url-access=subscription }}</ref> In 1637, Descartes wrote:<ref>{{Cite book |last=Descartes |first=R. |url=https://www.earlymoderntexts.com/assets/pdfs/descartes1619.pdf |title=Selected correspondence of Descartes |year=2013 |editor-last=Bennett |editor-first=J. |pages=50 |orig-date=Letter to Huygens, Oct 5, 1637}}</ref> 

{{Blockquote|text=Lifting 100 lb one foot twice over is the same as lifting 200 lb one foot, or 100 lb two feet.|author=|source=}}

==== Conservation of motion ====
{{Main|Momentum#History of the concept}}
In ''[[Principles of Philosophy]]'' (''Principia Philosophiae'') from 1644 Descartes outlined his views on the universe. In it he describes his three [[laws of motion]].<ref>{{cite book |author=Descartes |first=René |title=[[Principia Philosophiae]] |year=1644 |at=Part II, §§37–40}}</ref> ([[Newton's laws of motion|Newton's own laws of motion]] would later be modeled on Descartes's exposition.<ref name="Slowik" />) Descartes defined "quantity of motion" (''[[Latin language|Latin]]: quantitas motus'') as the product of size and speed, and claimed that the total quantity of motion in the universe is conserved.<ref name=":03">{{Cite book |last=Descartes |first=R. |url=https://www.earlymoderntexts.com/assets/pdfs/descartes1644part2.pdf |title=Principles of philosophy |year=2008 |editor-last=Bennett |editor-first=J. |at=Part II, § 36. |orig-date=1644}}</ref>{{Blockquote|text=If x is twice the size of y, and is moving half as fast, then there's the same amount of motion in each.|author=|title=|source=}}{{Blockquote|text=[God] created matter, along with its motion ... merely by letting things run their course, he preserves the same amount of motion ... as he put there in the beginning.|source=|author=|title=}}Descartes had discovered an early form of the law of [[conservation of momentum]].<ref name=":9" /> He envisioned quantity of motion as pertaining to motion in a straight line, as opposed to perfect circular motion, as Galileo had envisioned it.<ref name="Slowik" /><ref name=":9">Alexander Afriat, [http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/1699/1/Momentum3.pdf "Cartesian and Lagrangian Momentum"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170309014638/http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/1699/1/Momentum3.pdf|date=9 March 2017}} (2004).</ref> Descartes's discovery should not be seen as the modern law of conservation of momentum, since it had no concept of mass as distinct from weight or size, and since he believed that it is speed rather than velocity that is conserved.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Garber |first=Daniel |title=The Cambridge Companion to Descartes |date=1992 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-36696-0 |editor=John Cottingham |place=Cambridge |pages=310–319 |chapter=Descartes' Physics}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Rothman |first=Milton A. |url=https://archive.org/details/discoveringnatur0000roth/page/83 |title=Discovering the natural laws: the experimental basis of physics |date=1989 |publisher=Dover |isbn=9780486261782 |edition=2nd |location=New York |pages=[https://archive.org/details/discoveringnatur0000roth/page/83 83–88]}}</ref><ref>{{cite encyclopedia |title=Descartes' Physics |encyclopedia=The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy |url=https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2017/entries/descartes-physics/ |access-date=29 November 2019 |date=Fall 2017 |editor-last1=Zalta |editor-first1=Edward N. |first1=Edward |last1=Slowik}}</ref>

Descartes's [[Mechanical explanations of gravitation#Vortex Theory|vortex theory]] of planetary motion was later rejected by Newton in favor of his [[Newton's law of universal gravitation|law of universal gravitation]], and most of the second book of Newton's ''[[Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica|Principia]]'' is devoted to his counterargument.{{cn|date=July 2025}}

=== Magnetism ===
[[File:Descartes magnetic field.jpg|thumb|Descartes's 1664 diagram of effluvia emitted by magnets. It is a predecessor of the concept of [[magnetic field]].]]
Descartes proposed a theory to explain magnetism and explain the observation in ''[[De Magnete]]'' by [[William Gilbert (physicist)|William Gilbert]]. Descartes considered that 'effluvia' were emitted by a magnet, the effluvia rarefied the air creating pressure differences, and thus forces.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Cao |first=Tian Yu |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vaCsDwAAQBAJ&dq=descartes+magnetism+effluvia+rarefied&pg=PA22 |title=Conceptual Development of 20th Century Field Theories |date=2019-10-03 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-108-47607-2 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Baldassarri |first=Fabrizio |date=2023 |title=René Descartes’s Natural Philosophy and Particular Bodies |url=https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-48663-0_4 |journal=Studies in History and Philosophy of Science |language=en |pages=75-116 |doi=10.1007/978-3-031-48663-0 |issn=1871-7381|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

=== Glass science ===
In 1644, Descartes provides one of the earliest microscopic theories of [[glass]]. He considered that glass was formed by particles frozen in motion after heated. He also provides one of the earliest understanding of the role of stress and its relief by [[Annealing (glass)|annealing]].<ref>{{Citation |last=Richet |first=Pascal |title=A History of Glass Science |date=2021 |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of Glass Science, Technology, History, and Culture |pages=1413–1440 |editor-last=Richet |editor-first=Pascal |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/9781118801017.ch10.11 |access-date=2025-03-27 |edition=1 |publisher=Wiley |language=en |doi=10.1002/9781118801017.ch10.11 |isbn=978-1-118-79942-0 |editor2-last=Conradt |editor2-first=Reinhard |editor3-last=Takada |editor3-first=Akira |editor4-last=Dyon |editor4-first=Joël|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

=== Optics ===
Descartes also made contributions to the field of [[optics]]. He showed by using geometric construction and the [[law of refraction]] (also known as Descartes's law in France, or more commonly [[Snell's law]] elsewhere) that the angular radius of a [[rainbow]] is 42 degrees (i.e., the angle subtended at the eye by the edge of the rainbow and the ray passing from the sun through the rainbow's centre is 42°).<ref>{{cite book |last=Tipler |first=P.A. and G. Mosca |title=Physics For Scientists And Engineers |publisher=W.H. Freeman |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-7167-4389-7}}</ref> He also independently discovered the [[Specular reflection|law of reflection]], and his essay on optics was the first published mention of this law.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |year=2008 |title=René Descartes |encyclopedia=Encarta |publisher=Microsoft |url=http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761555262/Rene_Descartes.html#s3 |access-date=15 August 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070907142158/http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761555262/Rene_Descartes.html |archive-date=7 September 2007 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

== Meteorology ==
{{redirect|Les Météores|Michel Tournier's novel|Gemini (novel)}}
Within ''[[Discourse on the Method]]'', there is an appendix in which Descartes discusses his theories on [[meteorology]] known as ''Les Météores''. He first proposed the idea that the elements were made up of small particles that join together imperfectly, thus leaving small spaces in between. These spaces were then filled with smaller much quicker "subtile matter". These particles were different based on what element they constructed, for example, Descartes believed that particles of water were "like little eels, which, though they join and twist around each other, do not, for all that, ever knot or hook together in such a way that they cannot easily be separated."<ref name=":02">{{Cite book |last=Frisinger |first=H. Howard |title=The history of meteorology to 1800 |date=1977 |publisher=Science History Publications |isbn=0-88202-036-6 |location=New York |oclc=1694190}}</ref> In contrast, the particles that made up the more solid material, were constructed in a way that generated irregular shapes. The size of the particle also matters; if the particle was smaller, not only was it faster and constantly moving, it was more easily agitated by the larger particles, which were slow but had more force. The different qualities, such as combinations and shapes, gave rise to different secondary qualities of materials, such as temperature.<ref name=":12">{{Cite book |last=Martin |first=Craig |title=Renaissance meteorology : Pomponazzi to Descartes |date=2011 |publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press |isbn=978-1-4214-0244-4 |location=Baltimore |oclc=794700393}}</ref> This first idea is the basis for the rest of Descartes's theory on meteorology.

While rejecting most of [[Aristotle]]'s theories on meteorology, he still kept some of the terminology that Aristotle used such as vapors and exhalations. These "vapors" would be drawn into the sky by the sun from "terrestrial substances" and would generate wind.<ref name=":02" /> Descartes also theorized that falling clouds would displace the air below them, also generating wind. Falling clouds could also generate thunder. He theorized that when a cloud rests above another cloud and the air around the top cloud is hot, it condenses the vapor around the top cloud, and causes the particles to fall. When the particles falling from the top cloud collided with the bottom cloud's particles it would create thunder. He compared his theory on thunder to his theory on avalanches. Descartes believed that the booming sound that avalanches created, was due to snow that was heated, and therefore heavier, falling onto the snow that was below it. This theory was supported by experience: "It follows that one can understand why it thunders more rarely in winter than in summer; for then not enough heat reaches the highest clouds, in order to break them up."<ref name=":12" />

Another theory that Descartes had was on the production of lightning. Descartes believed that lightning was caused by exhalations trapped between the two colliding clouds. He believed that in order to make these exhalations viable to produce lightning, they had to be made "fine and inflammable" by hot and dry weather.<ref name=":12" /> Whenever the clouds would collide, it would cause them to ignite, creating lightning; if the cloud above was heavier than the bottom cloud, it would also produce thunder.

Descartes also believed that clouds were made up of drops of water and ice, and believed that rain would fall whenever the air could no longer support them. It would fall as snow if the air was not warm enough to melt the raindrops. And hail was when the cloud drops would melt, and then freeze again because cold air would refreeze them.<ref name=":02" /><ref name=":12" />

Descartes did not use mathematics or instruments (as there were not any at the time) to back up his theories on Meteorology and instead used qualitative reasoning in order to deduce his hypothesis.<ref name=":02" />

==Historical impact==
===Emancipation from Church doctrine===
[[File:DescartesMeditations.png|thumb|Cover of ''Meditations'']]

Descartes has often been dubbed the father of modern [[Western philosophy]], the thinker whose approaches have profoundly changed the course of Western philosophy and set the basis for [[modernity]].<ref name="Russell2004p516"/><ref>Heidegger [1938] (2002), p. 76 "Descartes... that which he himself founded... modern (and that means, at the same time, Western) metaphysics."</ref> The first two of his ''Meditations on First Philosophy'', those that formulate the famous methodic doubt, represent the portion of Descartes's writings that most influenced modern thinking.<ref>[[Tad Schmaltz|Schmaltz, Tad M.]] [https://books.google.com/books?id=pIYcUBCOrNgC&pg=PA27 ''Radical Cartesianism: The French Reception of Descartes''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210816214240/https://books.google.com/books?id=pIYcUBCOrNgC&pg=PA27 |date=16 August 2021 }} p. 27 quotation: {{blockquote|The Descartes most familiar to twentieth-century philosophers is the Descartes of the first two ''Meditations'', someone preoccupied with hyperbolic doubt of the material world and the certainty of knowledge of the self that emerges from the famous cogito argument.}}</ref> It has been argued that Descartes himself did not realize the extent of this revolutionary move.<ref>[[Roy Wood Sellars]] (1949) [https://archive.org/details/philosophyforfut00sell ''Philosophy for the future: the quest of modern materialism''] "Husserl has taken Descartes very seriously in a historical as well as in a systematic sense [...] [in ''The Crisis of the European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology'', Husserl] finds in the first two Meditations of Descartes a depth which it is difficult to fathom, and which Descartes himself was so little able to appreciate that he let go "the great discovery" he had in his hands."</ref> In shifting the debate from "what is true" to "of what can I be certain?", Descartes arguably shifted the authoritative guarantor of truth from God to humanity (even though Descartes himself claimed he received his visions from God)—while the traditional concept of "truth" implies an external authority, "certainty" instead relies on the judgment of the individual.

In an [[Anthropocentrism|anthropocentric]] revolution, the human being is now raised to the level of a subject, an agent, an [[Emancipation|emancipated]] being equipped with autonomous reason. This was a revolutionary step that contributed to the basis of the [[Modern Era]], the repercussions of which are still being felt: the emancipation of humanity from Christian [[revelation]]al truth and [[Catholic Church|Church doctrine]]; humanity making its own law and taking its own stand.<ref name="Heidegger1938emancipated">[[Martin Heidegger]] [1938] (2002) ''[[The Age of the World Picture]]'' quotation: {{blockquote|For up to Descartes...a particular ''sub-iectum''...lies at the foundation of its own fixed qualities and changing circumstances. The superiority of a ''sub-iectum''...arises out of the claim of man to a...self-supported, unshakeable foundation of truth, in the sense of certainty. Why and how does this claim acquire its decisive authority? The claim originates in that emancipation of man in which he frees himself from obligation to Christian revelational truth and Church doctrine to a legislating for himself that takes its stand upon itself.}}</ref><ref name="Ingraffia95p126">Ingraffia, Brian D. (1995) [https://books.google.com/books?id=LHjZYbOLG8cC&pg=PA126 ''Postmodern theory and biblical theology: vanquishing God's shadow''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210816214231/https://books.google.com/books?id=LHjZYbOLG8cC&pg=PA126 |date=16 August 2021 }} p. 126</ref><ref>Norman K. Swazo (2002) [https://books.google.com/books?id=INP_cy6Mu7EC&pg=PA97 ''Crisis theory and world order: Heideggerian reflections''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210816214249/https://books.google.com/books?id=INP_cy6Mu7EC&pg=PA97 |date=16 August 2021 }} pp. 97–99</ref> In modernity, the guarantor of truth is not God anymore but human beings, each of whom is a "self-conscious shaper and guarantor" of their own reality.<ref name="Lovitt77pxxv"/><ref>Briton, Derek [https://archive.org/details/modernpracticeof0000brit/page/76 ''The modern practice of adult education: a postmodern critique''] p. 76</ref> In that way, each person is turned into a reasoning adult, a subject and agent,<ref name="Lovitt77pxxv">Lovitt, Tom (1977) introduction to [[Martin Heidegger]]'s ''The question concerning technology, and other essays'', pp. xxv–xxvi</ref> as opposed to a child obedient to God. This change in perspective was characteristic of the shift from the Christian medieval period to the modern period, a shift that had been anticipated in other fields, and which was now being formulated in the field of philosophy by Descartes.<ref name="Lovitt77pxxv"/><ref>Martin Heidegger ''The Word of Nietzsche: God is Dead'' pp. 88–90</ref>

This anthropocentric perspective of Descartes's work, establishing human reason as autonomous, provided the basis for the [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]]'s emancipation from God and the Church. According to [[Martin Heidegger]], the perspective of Descartes's work also provided the basis for all subsequent [[anthropology]].<ref name="Heidegger19382002p75">Heidegger [1938] (2002), p. 75 quotation: {{blockquote|With the interpretation of man as ''subiectum'', Descartes creates the metaphysical presupposition for future anthropology of every kind and tendency.}}</ref> Descartes's philosophical revolution is sometimes said to have sparked modern [[anthropocentrism]] and [[subjectivism]].<ref name="Russell2004p516"/><ref>[[Benjamin I. Schwartz|Schwartz, B. I.]], ''China and Other Matters'' (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1996), [https://books.google.com/books?id=Wt4XDLEpjWYC&pg=PA95 p. 95] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210816214238/https://books.google.com/books?id=Wt4XDLEpjWYC&pg=PA95 |date=16 August 2021 }}, quotation: {{blockquote|...&nbsp;the kind of anthropocentric subjectivism which has emerged from the Cartesian revolution.}}</ref><ref>[[Charles B. Guignon]] [https://books.google.com/books?id=5vFCfdWD5QEC&pg=PA23 ''Heidegger and the problem of knowledge''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210816214243/https://books.google.com/books?id=5vFCfdWD5QEC&pg=PA23 |date=16 August 2021 }} p. 23</ref><ref>[[Edmund Husserl|Husserl, Edmund]] (1931) ''[[Cartesian Meditations: An Introduction to Phenomenology]]'' quotation: {{blockquote|When, with the beginning of modern times, religious belief was becoming more and more externalized as a lifeless convention, men of intellect were lifted by a new belief: their great belief in an autonomous philosophy and science. [...] in philosophy, the ''Meditations'' were epoch-making in a quite unique sense, and precisely because of their going back to the pure ''ego cogito''. Descartes work has been used, in fact to inaugurates an entirely new kind of philosophy. Changing its total style, philosophy takes a radical turn: from naïve objectivism to transcendental subjectivism.}}</ref>

===Reception===
The ''Discourse'' appeared during Descartes's lifetime in a single edition of 500 copies, 200 of which were set aside for the author. Sharing a similar fate was the only French edition of The ''Meditations'', which had not managed to sell out by the time of Descartes's death. A concomitant Latin edition of the latter was, however, eagerly sought out by Europe's scholarly community and proved a commercial success for Descartes.<ref>Maclean, I., introduction to Descartes, R., ''A Discourse on the Method of Correctly Conducting One's Reason and Seeking Truth in the Sciences'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006), [https://books.google.com/books?id=f9B3zzrPOY4C&pg=PR43 pp. xliii–xliv] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210816214235/https://books.google.com/books?id=f9B3zzrPOY4C&pg=PR43 |date=16 August 2021 }}.</ref>{{rp|xliii–xliv}}

Although Descartes was well known in academic circles towards the end of his life, the teaching of his works in schools was controversial. Henri de Roy ([[Henricus Regius]], 1598–1679), Professor of Medicine at the University of Utrecht, was condemned by the Rector of the university, [[Gisbertus Voetius|Gijsbert Voet]] (Voetius), for teaching Descartes's physics.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Cottingham |first1=John |author-link=John Cottingham |first2=Dugald |last2=Murdoch |first3=Robert |last3=Stoothof |title=The Philosophical Writings of Descartes |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=T5cSfRS4m5QC&pg=PA293 |chapter=Comments on a Certain Broadsheet |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1984 |page=293 |isbn=978-0-521-28807-1 |access-date=24 May 2020 |archive-date=1 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200801015720/https://books.google.com/books?id=T5cSfRS4m5QC&pg=PA293 |url-status=live }}</ref>

According to philosophy professor [[John Cottingham]], Descartes's ''Meditations on First Philosophy'' is considered to be "one of the key texts of Western philosophy". Cottingham said that the ''Meditations'' is the "most widely studied of all Descartes' writings".{{sfn|Cottingham|Williams|1996}}{{rp|50}} According to author [[Anthony Gottlieb]], one of the reasons Descartes and [[Thomas Hobbes]] continue to be debated in the second decade of the twenty-first century, is that they still have something to say to us that remains relevant on questions such as, "What does the advance of science entail for our understanding of ourselves and our ideas of God?" and "How is government to deal with religious diversity?"{{sfn|Gottlieb|2016|page=23}}

==Bibliography==
===Writings===
* 1618. [https://books.google.com/books?id=_KzBJf8q37wC ''Musicae Compendium'']. A treatise on music theory and the aesthetics of music, which Descartes dedicated to early collaborator Isaac Beeckman (written in 1618, first published—posthumously—in 1650).<ref>[[Harold J. Cook|Cook, H. J.]], in [[Roy Porter|Porter, R.]], & [[Mikuláš Teich|Teich, M.]], eds., ''The Scientific Revolution in National Context'' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992), [https://books.google.com/books?id=l61fl6Z1sxQC&pg=PA127 pp. 127–29] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211216195812/https://books.google.com/books?id=l61fl6Z1sxQC&pg=PA127 |date=16 December 2021 }}.</ref>{{rp|127–129}}
* 1626–1628. ''Regulae ad directionem ingenii'' (''[[Rules for the Direction of the Mind]]''). Incomplete. First published posthumously in Dutch translation in 1684 and in the original Latin at Amsterdam in 1701 (''R. Des-Cartes Opuscula Posthuma Physica et Mathematica''). The best critical edition, which includes the Dutch translation of 1684, is edited by Giovanni Crapulli (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1966).
* c. 1630. ''De solidorum elementis''. Concerns the classification of [[Platonic solid]]s and three-dimensional [[figurate number]]s. Said by some scholars to prefigure [[Euler's polyhedral formula]]. Unpublished; discovered in Descartes's estate in Stockholm 1650, soaked for three days in the Seine in a shipwreck while being shipped back to Paris, copied in 1676 by Leibniz, and lost. Leibniz's copy, also lost, was rediscovered circa 1860 in Hannover.<ref>{{cite book|title=Descartes on Polyhedra: A Study of the "De solidorum elementis"|title-link=Descartes on Polyhedra|first=Pasquale Joseph|last=Federico|author-link=Pasquale Joseph Federico|series= Sources in the History of Mathematics and Physical Sciences|volume=4|publisher=Springer|year=1982}}</ref>
* 1630–1631. ''La recherche de la vérité par la lumière naturelle'' (''[[The Search for Truth by Natural Light]]'') unfinished dialogue published in 1701.<ref>Cottingham, J., Murdoch, D., & Stoothof, R., trans. and eds., ''The Philosophical Writings of Descartes'', Vol. 2 (Cambridge: Cambridge University, 1984), [https://books.google.com/books?id=j9D3CwAAQBAJ&pg=PT264 pp. 264ff] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210816214238/https://books.google.com/books?id=j9D3CwAAQBAJ&pg=PT264 |date=16 August 2021 }}.</ref>{{rp|264ff}}
* 1630–1633. ''Le Monde'' (''[[The World (Descartes)|The World]]'') and ''[[Treatise on Man|L'Homme]]'' (''Man''). Descartes's first systematic presentation of his natural philosophy. ''Man'' was published posthumously in Latin translation in 1662; and ''The World'' posthumously in 1664.
* 1637. ''Discours de la méthode'' (''[[Discourse on the Method]]''). An introduction to the ''Essais'', which include ''[[La Dioptrique]]'', ''Les Météores'' and ''La Géométrie''.
* 1637. ''[[La Géométrie]]'' (''Geometry''). Descartes's major work in mathematics. There is an English translation by Michael Mahoney (New York: Dover, 1979).
* 1641. ''Meditationes de prima philosophia'' (''[[Meditations on First Philosophy]]''), also known as ''Metaphysical Meditations''. In Latin; a second edition, published the following year, included an additional objection and reply, and a ''Letter to Dinet''. A French translation by the [[Duke of Luynes]], probably done without Descartes's supervision, was published in 1647. Includes six [[Meditations on First Philosophy#Objections and replies|Objections and Replies]].
* 1644. ''Principia philosophiae'' (''[[Principles of Philosophy]]''), a Latin textbook at first intended by Descartes to replace the Aristotelian textbooks then used in universities. A French translation, ''Principes de philosophie'' by Claude Picot, under the supervision of Descartes, appeared in 1647 with a letter-preface to Princess Elisabeth of Bohemia.
* 1647. ''Notae in programma'' (''Comments on a Certain Broadsheet''). A reply to Descartes's one-time disciple Henricus Regius.
* 1648. ''La description du corps humain'' (''[[The Description of the Human Body]]''). Published posthumously by Clerselier in 1667.
* 1648. ''Responsiones Renati Des Cartes...'' (''Conversation with Burman''). Notes on a Q&A session between Descartes and Frans Burman on 16 April 1648. Rediscovered in 1895 and published for the first time in 1896. An annotated bilingual edition (Latin with French translation), edited by Jean-Marie Beyssade, was published in 1981 (Paris: PUF).
* 1649. ''Les passions de l'âme'' (''[[Passions of the Soul]]''). Dedicated to Princess [[Elisabeth of the Palatinate]].
* 1657. ''Correspondance'' (three volumes: 1657, 1659, 1667). Published by Descartes's literary executor [[Claude Clerselier]]. The third edition, in 1667, was the most complete; Clerselier omitted, however, much of the material pertaining to mathematics.

In January 2010, a previously unknown letter from Descartes, dated 27 May 1641, was found by the Dutch philosopher Erik-Jan Bos when browsing through [[Google Search|Google]]. Bos found the letter mentioned in a summary of autographs kept by [[Haverford College]] in [[Haverford, Pennsylvania]]. The college was unaware that the letter had never been published. This was the third letter by Descartes found in the last 25 years.<ref>{{cite news |last=Vlasblom |first=Dirk |url=http://www.nrc.nl/international/article2492445.ece/Unknown_letter_from_Descartes_found |title=Unknown letter from Descartes found |newspaper=[[NRC.nl]] |date=25 February 2010 |access-date=30 May 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161108023903/http://vorige.nrc.nl/international/article2492445.ece/Unknown_letter_from_Descartes_found |archive-date=8 November 2016 |language=nl |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |language=nl |url=http://www.nrc.nl/wetenschap/article2491995.ece/Hoe_Descartes_in_1641_op_andere_gedachten_kwam |title=Hoe Descartes in 1641 op andere gedachten kwam |last=Vlasblom |first=Dirk |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161027192606/http://vorige.nrc.nl/wetenschap/article2491995.ece/Hoe_Descartes_in_1641_op_andere_gedachten_kwam |archive-date=27 October 2016 |newspaper=[[NRC.nl]]}}</ref>

<gallery widths="160px" heights="200px">
File:Handwritten letter by Descartes December 1638.jpg|Handwritten letter by Descartes, December 1638
File:René Descartes 1644 Principia philosophiae.jpg|''Principia philosophiae'', 1644
</gallery>

===Collected editions===
{{refbegin|30em}}
* ''Oeuvres de Descartes'' edited by Charles Adam and [[Paul Tannery]], Paris: Léopold Cerf, 1897–1913, 13 volumes; new revised edition, Paris: Vrin-CNRS, 1964–1974, 11 volumes (the first five volumes contain the correspondence). [This edition is traditionally cited with the initials ''AT'' (for Adam and Tannery) followed by a volume number in Roman numerals; thus ''AT'' VII refers to ''Oeuvres de Descartes'' volume 7.]
* ''Étude du bon sens, La recherche de la vérité et autres écrits de jeunesse (1616–1631)'' edited by Vincent Carraud and Gilles Olivo, Paris: PUF, 2013.
* Descartes, ''Œuvres complètes'', new edition by Jean-Marie Beyssade and Denis Kambouchner, Paris: Gallimard, published volumes:
** I: ''Premiers écrits. Règles pour la direction de l'esprit'', 2016.
** III: ''Discours de la Méthode et Essais'', 2009.
** VIII.1: ''Correspondance, 1'' edited by Jean-Robert Armogathe, 2013.
** VIII.2: ''Correspondance, 2'' edited by Jean-Robert Armogathe, 2013.
* ''René Descartes. Opere 1637–1649'', Milano, Bompiani, 2009, pp.&nbsp;2531. Edizione integrale (di prime edizioni) e traduzione italiana a fronte, a cura di G. Belgioioso con la collaborazione di I. Agostini, M. Marrone, M. Savini {{isbn|978-88-452-6332-3}}.
* ''René Descartes. Opere 1650–2009'', Milano, Bompiani, 2009, pp.&nbsp;1723. Edizione integrale delle opere postume e traduzione italiana a fronte, a cura di G. Belgioioso con la collaborazione di I. Agostini, M. Marrone, M. Savini {{isbn|978-88-452-6333-0}}.
* ''René Descartes. Tutte le lettere 1619–1650'', Milano, Bompiani, 2009 IIa ed., pp.&nbsp;3104. Nuova edizione integrale dell'epistolario cartesiano con traduzione italiana a fronte, a cura di G. Belgioioso con la collaborazione di I. Agostini, M. Marrone, F.A. Meschini, M. Savini e J.-R. Armogathe {{isbn|978-88-452-3422-4}}.
* ''René Descartes, Isaac Beeckman, Marin Mersenne. Lettere 1619–1648'', Milano, Bompiani, 2015 pp.&nbsp;1696. Edizione integrale con traduzione italiana a fronte, a cura di Giulia Beglioioso e Jean Robert-Armogathe {{isbn|978-88-452-8071-9}}.
{{refend}}

===Early editions of specific works===
{{refbegin}}
* [http://lhldigital.lindahall.org/cdm/ref/collection/philsci/id/14760 ''Discours de la methode''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304101305/http://lhldigital.lindahall.org/cdm/ref/collection/philsci/id/14760 |date=4 March 2016 }}, 1637
* [http://lhldigital.lindahall.org/cdm/ref/collection/earththeory/id/49760 ''Renati Des-Cartes Principia philosophiæ''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160409041221/http://lhldigital.lindahall.org/cdm/ref/collection/earththeory/id/49760 |date=9 April 2016 }}, 1644
* [http://lhldigital.lindahall.org/cdm/ref/collection/earththeory/id/42574 ''Le monde de Mr. Descartes ou le traité de la lumiere''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304192036/http://lhldigital.lindahall.org/cdm/ref/collection/earththeory/id/42574 |date=4 March 2016 }}, 1664
* [http://lhldigital.lindahall.org/cdm/ref/collection/math/id/13704 ''Geometria''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201024091758/http://lhldigital.lindahall.org/cdm/ref/collection/math/id/13704 |date=24 October 2020 }}, 1659
* [http://lhldigital.lindahall.org/cdm/ref/collection/philsci/id/31030 ''Meditationes de prima philosophia''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201024092845/http://lhldigital.lindahall.org/cdm/ref/collection/philsci/id/31030 |date=24 October 2020 }}, 1670
* [http://lhldigital.lindahall.org/cdm/ref/collection/philsci/id/33894 ''Opera philosophica''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201027015852/http://lhldigital.lindahall.org/cdm/ref/collection/philsci/id/33894 |date=27 October 2020 }}, 1672
{{refend}}

===Collected English translations===
{{refbegin|30em}}
* 1955. ''The Philosophical Works'', [[Elizabeth Haldane|E.S. Haldane]] and G.R.T. Ross, trans. Dover Publications. This work is traditionally cited with the initials ''HR'' (for Haldane and Ross) followed by a volume number in Roman numerals; thus ''HR'' II refers to volume 2 of this edition.
* 1988. ''The Philosophical Writings of Descartes'' in 3 vols. [[John Cottingham|Cottingham, J.]], Stoothoff, R., [[Anthony Kenny|Kenny, A.]], and Murdoch, D., trans. Cambridge University Press. This work is traditionally cited with the initials ''CSM'' (for Cottingham, Stoothoff, and Murdoch) or ''CSMK'' (for Cottingham, Stoothoff, Murdoch, and Kenny) followed by a volume number in Roman numeral; thus ''CSM'' II refers to volume 2 of this edition.
* 1998. ''René Descartes: The World and Other Writings.'' Translated and edited by [[Stephen Gaukroger]]. Cambridge University Press. (This consists mainly of scientific writings, on physics, biology, astronomy, optics, etc., which were very influential in the 17th and 18th centuries, but which are routinely omitted or much abridged in modern collections of Descartes's ''philosophical'' works.)
{{refend}}

===Translation of single works===
{{refbegin|28em}}
* 1628. [https://books.google.com/books?id=fZvuT6Q76GAC ''Regulae ad directionem ingenii. Rules for the Direction of the Natural Intelligence. A Bilingual Edition of the Cartesian Treatise on Method''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210816214243/https://books.google.com/books?id=fZvuT6Q76GAC&printsec=frontcover |date=16 August 2021 }}, ed. & trans. G. Heffernan (Amsterdam/Atlanta: Rodopi, 1998).
* 1633. [http://www.princeton.edu/~hos/mike/texts/descartes/world/worldfr.htm ''The World, or Treatise on Light''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210621095514/http://www.princeton.edu/~hos/mike/texts/descartes/world/worldfr.htm |date=21 June 2021 }}, tr. by [[Michael S. Mahoney]].
* 1633. ''Treatise of Man'', tr. by T. S. Hall. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1972.
* 1637. ''Discourse on the Method, Optics, Geometry and Meteorology'', trans. [[Paul J. Olscamp|P. J. Olscamp]], Revised edition (Indianapolis: [[Hackett Publishing Company|Hackett]], 2001).
* 1637. [https://books.google.com/books?id=TXopSMll0tEC ''The Geometry of René Descartes''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210816214242/https://books.google.com/books?id=TXopSMll0tEC&printsec=frontcover |date=16 August 2021 }}, trans. D. E. Smith & Marcia Latham (Chicago: [[Open Court Publishing Company|Open Court]], 1925).
* 1641. ''Meditations on First Philosophy'', tr. by J. Cottingham, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996. Latin original. Alternative English title: ''Metaphysical Meditations''. Includes six ''Objections and Replies''. A second edition published the following year, includes an additional ''Objection and Reply'' and a ''Letter to Dinet''. [http://www.wright.edu/cola/descartes/intro.html HTML Online Latin-French-English Edition] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060827231748/http://www.wright.edu/cola/descartes/intro.html |date=27 August 2006 }}.
* 1644. [https://books.google.com/books?id=2KNFBgAAQBAJ ''Principles of Philosophy''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200930220348/https://books.google.com/books?id=2KNFBgAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover |date=30 September 2020 }}, trans. V. R. Miller & R. P. Miller: ([[Dordrecht]]/Boston/London: [[Springer Science+Business Media#History|Kluwer Academic Publishers]], 1982).
* 1648. ''Descartes' Conversation with Burman'', tr. by J. Cottingham, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989.
* 1649. [https://books.google.com/books?id=Ca9aBAAAQBAJ ''Passions of the Soul''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210816214249/https://books.google.com/books?id=Ca9aBAAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover |date=16 August 2021 }}, trans. S. H. Voss (Indianapolis: Hackett, 1989). Dedicated to [[Elisabeth of the Palatinate]].
* 1619–1648. ''René Descartes, Isaac Beeckman, Marin Mersenne. Lettere 1619–1648'', ed. by Giulia Beglioioso and Jean Robert-Armogathe, Milano, Bompiani, 2015 pp.&nbsp;1696. {{isbn|978-88-452-8071-9}}
{{refend}}

== See also ==
{{Portal|Mathematics|Philosophy}}
{{div col}}
* [[Bucket argument]]
* [[Cartesian circle]]
* [[Cartesian plane]]
* [[Cartesian product]]
* [[Cartesian product of graphs]]
* [[Cartesian theater]]
* [[Cartesian tree]]
* [[Descartes number]]
* [[Descartes' rule of signs]]
* [[Descartes' theorem]] (4 tangent circles)
* [[Angular defect|Descartes's theorem on total angular defect]]
* [[Folium of Descartes]]
* [[List of things named after René Descartes]]
{{div col end}}

== Notes ==
{{NoteFoot|30em}}

== References ==
=== Citations ===
{{Reflist|25em}}

=== Sources ===
{{refbegin|30em}}
* {{cite book |last=Clarke |first=Desmond |author-link = Desmond Clarke |year=2006 |title = Descartes: A Biography |location=Cambridge, England |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-82301-2 }}
* {{cite book |editor-last1=Cottingham |editor-first1=John |editor-last2=Williams |editor-first2=B. |date=1996 |chapter=Sixth Meditation: The existence of material things, and the real distinction between mind and body |title=Descartes: Meditations on First Philosophy: With Selections from the Objections and Replies|series=Cambridge Texts in the History of Philosophy |pages=50–62 |location=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |doi=10.1017/CBO9780511805028.012|isbn=978-0521558181 }}
* Farrell, John. "Demons of Descartes and Hobbes." ''Paranoia and Modernity: Cervantes to Rousseau'' (Cornell UP, 2006), chapter 7.
* {{cite book |last=Gaukroger |first=Stephen |author-link = Stephen Gaukroger |year=1995 |title = Descartes: An Intellectual Biography |location=Oxford, England |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-823994-9 }}
* Gillespie, A. (2006). [https://web.archive.org/web/20100618050955/http://stir.academia.edu/documents/0011/0112/Gillespie_Descartes_demon_a_dialogical_analysis_of_meditations_on_first_philosophy.pdf Descartes' Demon: A Dialogical Analysis of 'Meditations on First Philosophy.'] ''Theory & Psychology'', 16, 761–781.
* {{cite book |title  = The Dream of Enlightenment: The Rise of Modern Philosophy| first=Anthony |last=Gottlieb | location=| publisher= Allen Lane |date=2016 | page=301  | isbn=978-0871404435 |oclc=}}
* [[A. C. Grayling|Grayling, A. C.]] (2005). ''Descartes: The Life of René Descartes and Its Place in His Times'', The Free Press, London. {{ISBN|978-0-74323-147-3}}.
* [[Martin Heidegger|Heidegger, Martin]] [1938] (2002) ''The Age of the World Picture'' in [https://books.google.com/books?id=QImd2ARqQPMC&pg=PA66 ''Off the Beaten Track''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201121122353/https://books.google.com/books?id=QImd2ARqQPMC&pg=PA66 |date=21 November 2020 }} pp.&nbsp;57–85
* Monnoyeur, Françoise (November 2017), ''Matière et espace dans le système cartésien'', Paris, Harmattan, 266 pp. {{ISBN|978-2-343-13394-2}}.
* Moreno Romo, Juan Carlos, ''Vindicación del cartesianismo radical'', Anthropos, Barcelona, 2010.
* Moreno Romo, Juan Carlos (Coord.), ''Descartes vivo. Ejercicios de hermenéutica cartesiana'', Anthropos, Barcelona, 2007.
* [[Antonio Negri|Negri, Antonio]] (2007) ''The Political Descartes'', Verso.
* Sasaki Chikara (2003). [https://books.google.com/books?id=H1H1CAAAQBAJ ''Descartes's Mathematical Thought''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210305045904/https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=H1H1CAAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0 |date=5 March 2021 }}. (Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science, 237.) xiv + 496 pp., bibl., indexes. Dordrecht/Boston/London: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
* Serfati, Michel, 2005, "Géometrie" in [[Ivor Grattan-Guinness]], ed., ''Landmark Writings in Western Mathematics''. Elsevier: 1–22.
* Watson, Richard A. (2007). Cogito, Ergo Sum: a life of René Descartes. David R Godine. 2002, reprint 2007. {{ISBN|978-1-56792-335-3}}. Was chosen by the New York Public library as one of "25 Books to Remember from 2002"
* Frisinger, H. Howard. “Chapter 3 .” The History of Meteorology: To 1800, American Meteorological Society, Boston, MA, 1983, pp.&nbsp;37–40. {{ISBN|978-0882020365}}
* Martin, Craig. “Chapter 6.” Renaissance Meteorology: Pomponazzi to Descartes, Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, MD, 2011. {{ISBN|978-1421401874}}
{{refend}}

== External links ==
{{Sister project links|auto=yes}}
{{EB1911 poster|Descartes, René}}

===Digital collections===
* {{StandardEbooks|Standard Ebooks URL=https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/rene-descartes}}
* {{Gutenberg author |id =44|name = René Descartes }}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname = René Descartes |sopt = t }}
* {{Librivox author |id = 4158 }}
* [http://www.earlymoderntexts.com EarlyModernTexts.com] {{--}} A site containing Descartes's main works, including correspondence, slightly modified for easier reading

===Physical collections===
* [http://emlo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/blog/?catalogue=rene-descartes The Correspondence of René Descartes] in [http://emlo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/home Early Modern Letters Online]

===Biographical links===
* [http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Descartes.html Detailed biography of Descartes] at MacTutor
* {{cite CE1913 |wstitle = René Descartes }}
* [http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/modlangfrench/20/ René Descartes (1596–1650)] Published in ''Encyclopedia of Rhetoric and Composition'' (1996)
* {{MathGenealogy |id = 125358 }}

===Bibliographies and works===
* [https://archive.today/20160110112345/http://www.cartesius.net/menu-demo/bibliografia-cartesiana ''Bibliografia cartesiana/Bibliographie cartésienne on-line (1997–2012)'']
* {{IMSLP |id = Descartes, René }}

===''Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy''===
* [http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/descartes/ Descartes]
* [http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/descartes-works/ Life and works]
* [http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/descartes-epistemology/ Epistemology]
* [http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/descartes-mathematics/ Mathematics]
* [http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/descartes-physics/ Physics]
* [http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/descartes-ethics/ Ethics]
* [http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/descartes-modal/ Modal Metaphysics]
* [http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/descartes-ontological/ Ontological Argument]
* [http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/descartes-ideas/ Theory of Ideas]
* [http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/pineal-gland/ Pineal Gland]
* [http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/descartes-works/history.html Law Thesis]

===''Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy''===
* [http://www.iep.utm.edu/descarte/ Descartes]
* [http://www.iep.utm.edu/desc-eth/ Descartes: Ethics]
* [http://www.iep.utm.edu/descmind/ Descartes: Mind-Body Distinction]
* [http://www.iep.utm.edu/desc-sci/ Descartes: Scientific Method]

===Other===
* Video: [[Bryan Magee]] interviews [[Bernard Williams]] about Descartes on ''[[Men of Ideas]]'': [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44h9QuWcJYk Section 1], [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyddgzJF3-M Section 2]

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[[Category:Burials at Saint-Germain-des-Prés (abbey)]]
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[[Category:French consciousness researchers and theorists]]
[[Category:Constructed language creators]]
[[Category:Critics of animal rights]]
[[Category:Deaths from pneumonia in Sweden]]
[[Category:Dualists]]
[[Category:Enlightenment philosophers]]
[[Category:Immigrants to the Dutch Republic]]
[[Category:French ethicists]]
[[Category:French expatriates in Sweden]]
[[Category:French expatriates in the Dutch Republic]]
[[Category:French logicians]]
[[Category:French mercenaries]]
[[Category:French music theorists]]
[[Category:French Roman Catholic writers]]
[[Category:Leiden University alumni]]
[[Category:Metaphilosophers]]
[[Category:Metaphysics writers]]
[[Category:French military personnel of the Thirty Years' War]]
[[Category:Natural philosophers]]
[[Category:Ontologists]]
[[Category:People from Indre-et-Loire]]
[[Category:People of the Age of Enlightenment]]
[[Category:French philosophers of art]]
[[Category:French philosophers of culture]]
[[Category:French philosophers of education]]
[[Category:French philosophers of history]]
[[Category:Philosophers of logic]]
[[Category:Philosophers of mathematics]]
[[Category:French philosophers of mind]]
[[Category:Philosophers of psychology]]
[[Category:French philosophers of science]]
[[Category:Philosophers of social science]]
[[Category:Philosophers of time]]
[[Category:Rationalists]]
[[Category:University of Poitiers alumni]]
[[Category:Writers about activism and social change]]
[[Category:Writers about religion and science]]
[[Category:Writers who illustrated their own writing]]
[[Category:Critics of atheism]]
[[Category:People from Touraine]]
[[Category:French emigrants to the Netherlands]]