I suppose therefore that all things I see are illusions; I believe that nothing has ever existed of everything my lying memory tells me. I think I have no senses. I believe that body, shape, extension, motion, location are functions. What is there then that can be taken as true? Perhaps only this one thing, that nothing at all is certain.
rené Descartesquotes
1596 - 1650
In a time when original thinking could get one burned at the stake, French philosopher and mathematician René Descartes (1596-1650) persisted in his “hope for a revolution in science.” Considered the father of modern philosophy, Descartes also influenced the scientific revolution as he promoted research firmly rooted in observation and experiment. He is the inventor of analytic geometry, as well as methodological skepticism, and known for the quote, “I think, therefore I am.”
Raised by his maternal grandmother until age 8, Descartes then attended a Jesuit boarding school. In college he studied theology, medicine, mathematics and philosophy but earned a law degree. He joined the army and traveled the globe where he, as he later explained, studied the “book of the world” to find truth.
His treatise, Discourse on Method, was published in French instead of Latin to broaden its accessibility. While known for its ground-breaking philosophical views, it also reveals Descartes true goal: To help both men and women learn to think for themselves.
Descartes moved to the more tolerant Netherlands to find solitude as well as safety for his sometimes heretical thinking. In Meditations on First Philosophy, in Which Is Proved the Existence of God and the Immortality of the Soul, Descartes offers two proofs for the existence of God. Descartes was unattached to the emotions of religion, but held that a belief in God was necessary to live a moral life. He believed if man wanted change rather than pray to God, he must to learn to change himself.
And thus, the actions of life often not allowing any delay, it is a truth very certain that, when it is not in our power to determine the most true opinions we ought to follow the most probable.
Common sense is the most widely shared commodity in the world, for every man is convinced that he is well supplied with it.
Except our own thoughts, there is nothing absolutely in our power.
It is not enough to have a good mind; the main thing is to use it well.
Doubt is the origin of wisdom.
Conquer yourself rather than the world.
The reading of all good books is like conversation with the finest men of past centuries.
If you would be a real seeker after truth, it is necessary that at least once in your life you doubt, as far as possible, all things.
Cogito ergo sum. (I think, therefore I am.)
