A Short Biography of Descartes
René Descartes, the founder of modern philosophy and mathematics.
Renè Descartes is a famous philosopher considered to be the founding father of ‘modern’ philosophy. He was born in 1596, in small town called La Haye, in west-central France. It was later renamed ‘Descartes’ in honour of the great philosopher. The frenchman was writing in a time, and indeed was instrumentally in defining that time, as an era moving from the medieval period into the modern period.
The ‘modern’ philosophers are thinkers who were trying to reconcile the beginnings of modern science with deeply held religious beliefs. Descartes philosophical concerns are arguments produced in a rapidly changing and political divisive period over 350 years ago.
Descartes’ Education
In 1606, Descartes attended the Jesuit College of La Flèche. It was considered to be the best school in France. Later, Descartes wrote how he studied at one of the most famous schools in the whole of Europe. Indeed, the Jesuit emphasis on education ensured that boys from across Europe and from all social classes were sent to the school.
At La Flèche, Descartes was first introduced to philosophy through a curriculum largely based on Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas. This type of philosophy is called…
