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Biography of René DescartesName: René DescartesBirth Date: March 31, 1596 Death Date: February 11, 1650 Place of Birth: La Haye, France Nationality: French Gender: Male Occupations: philosopher, writer René Descartes The French thinker René Descartes (1596-1650) is called the father of modern philosophy. He initiated the movement generally termed rationalism, and his Discourse on Method and Meditations defined the basic problems of philosophy for at least a century.To appreciate the novelty of the thought of René Descartes, one must understand what modern philosophy, or rationalism, means in contrast to medieval, or scholastic, philosophy. The great European thinkers of the 9th to 14th century were not incapable of logical reasoning, but they differed in philosophic interests and aims from the rationalists. Just as the moderns, from Descartes on, usually identified philosophy with the natural and pure sciences, so the medievals made little distinction between philosophical and theological concerns.The medieval doctors, like St. Thomas Aquinas, wanted to demonstrate that the revelations of faith and the dictates of reason were not incompatible. Their universe was that outlined by Aristotle in …showed first 150 words…
…showed last 150 words…and G.T.R. Ross (2 vols., 1955), although many editions of individual works in new translations are available in paperback. The standard biography is Haldane's Descartes: His Life and Times (1905; repr. 1966). Other biographical studies include Stephen Gaukroger, Descartes: An Intellectual Biography (1995), as well as Geneviève Rodis-Lewis Descartes: A Biography (trans. 1998), and Richard Watson, Cogito, Ergo Sum: The Life of Rene Descartes (2002). The best general introductions to Descartes's philosophy are A. Boyce Gibson, The Philosophy of Descartes (1932); Stanley V. Keeling, Descartes (1934; 2d ed. 1968); and Albert G. A. Balz, Descartes and the Modern Mind (1952). Works on specialized topics of an analytic or critical nature include Norman Kemp Smith, Studies in the Cartesian Philosophy (1902) and New Studies in the Philosophy of Descartes: Descartes as Pioneer (1952); Jacques Maritain, Three Reformers: Luther Descartes, Rousseau (trans. 1928) and The Dream of Descartes (trans. 1944); and Leslie J. Beck, The Method of Descartes: A Study of the Regulae (1952). |