A Short Biography of Descartes
By: Isabella Beckett-Smith
Tags: René Descartes, Philosophy, History, Biography, Education

René Descartes, the founder of modern philosophy and mathematics.

A black and white print of René Descartes

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 ‘scholastic philosophy’. Additionally, he was taught mathematics, astronomy, music and became fluent in Latin, which was the intellectual language of Europe.

However, as a religious order, any deviation from traditional philosophy and theology was not tolerated. Scholastic philosophy was a series of complex doctrines using Aristotelian logic and philosophy. It defended the view of there being only four kind of causes and four elements. This meant every explanation could be reduced to these ideas. Scholastic philosophy, also, argued God is infinitely powerful and each person has an individual soul within the ‘substantial form’ of a body.

Eventually, Descartes’ work would come to deeply contest scholastic philosophy. Notwithstanding Descartes rejection of scholastic philosophy, he received one of the best, progressive educations in Europe. In June 1611, a 15-year-old Descartes, heard a poem celebrating Galileo’s discovery of the moons of Jupiter recited at the College. Throughout his life, he maintained an active interest with the intellectual debates and discoveries of the time. He frequently corresponded with the intellectual and cultural giants of Europe.

Descartes as a Young Adult

Europe was in constant political upheaval with the English Civil War and the Thirty Year War occurring throughout Descartes life. Descartes enlisted in the army in Holland and then later in Germany. Whilst in Holland, he met Isaac Beeckman who became a mathematical and philosophical tutor for him. In 1618, he wrote his first work ‘Compendium Musicae’ dedicating it to Beeckman. It remained unpublished during his lifetime.

Throughout most of his twenties, Descartes travelled Europe living in France, Holland, Italy and Germany. He frequently moved and seemed to live a busy and active life. However, he always preferred solitude. He wrote how in the countryside he was free from ‘innumerable distraction’ (AT II 152; ALQ II 68). Eventually, Descartes settled in protestant Holland where he wrote his major works.

Descartes’ ‘Scientific’ Works

One of the characteristics of the modern period is the beginning of the specialisation of knowledge. This occurred through the invention and evaluation of different scientific and philosophical methodologies. The modern period laid the foundation for the separation of subjects, which we now know as the science, theology and philosophy. At the time, Descartes and his contemporaries were all simply known as philosophers.

Whilst in Holland, Descartes became preoccupied with creating a comprehensive, universal treatise which would explain nature based on certain reasoning and principles. Descartes didn’t want ‘natural philosophy’ (or science) to rely on abstract Aristotelian causes, which didn’t allow for new information to be learnt from natural phenomena. Rather, he wanted to explain physical experiences using properties which can be attributed to the phenomena itself.

By 1633, he had finished Le Monde (The World) which outlined a physical theories of the universe. However, in the same year, the inquisition in Rome pronounced Galileo guilty for producing arguments showing how the earth rotates around the sun. This supported the Copernican view of the universe and counteracted the views of the Catholic Church. The church believed the Earth was at the center of the solar system.

Undoubtedly, this worried Descartes. He waited until 1637 before deciding to publish only a sample of his work. The introduction to the essays on physics was called ‘Discourse on the Method of Rightly Conducting One’s Reason and Seeking the Truth in the Sciences’ or, as it is known today, ‘Discourse on Method’.

The individual essays were on Optics, Meteorology and Geometry. The ‘Geometry’ created the foundation for coordinate geometry. It is an extremely important work in the history of mathematics. The famous mathematician Pierre de Fermat even wrote a response to it.

The other essays were treatise on cosmology and physics written with the resolute desire to avoid Aristotelian ideas of ‘substantial forms’ and ‘real qualities’. Instead, Descartes attempted to explain the universe using simple, mechanical principles. An important part of his philosophy is the idea that matter is essentially the same throughout the universe, thus obeying universal physical laws.

Descartes’ ‘Philosophical’ Works

The ‘Discourse on Method’ is not concerned with physical questions. Instead, Descartes discusses arguments for the foundation of knowledge, the existence of God and the distinction between the material body and the soul. This was the first introduction to Cartesian philosophy which has defined the intellectual history of Europe ever since.

As a keen mathematician Descartes was inspired by the certainty of mathematical proofs. If we could know certain truths, we could then logical deduce all of knowledge from them. He wrote

“…never to accept anything for true which I did not clearly know to be such…so clearly and distinctly as to exclude all ground of doubt (DM II)”.

It is in the ‘Discourse on Method’, Descartes first created his famous method of doubt in an attempt to gain certain knowledge. A sceptic is someone who believes certain knowledge is impossible. Cartesian scepticism is not truly scepticism. Rather, it was designed to show the impossibility of such scepticism through using meditation exercises and philosophical thought experiments.

In a series of short meditations, Descartes argues even if all of our senses were deceiving us and our sensory experiences were nothing but dreams; we would still have certain knowledge. When we dream, we still know ‘I am dreaming’ — ‘I sense this. I experience this. I think this’. Or, in Descartes famous maxim

“I think, therefore I am”. (Cogito Ergo Sum)

In 1641, Descartes published ‘Meditations on First Philosophy’ which greatly expanded upon these arguments. He wrote in the synopsis

“The purpose of my arguments is not to prove what they establish — that there really is world and that human beings have bodies and so on — since no one has ever seriously doubted these things”.

Instead, Descartes is trying to show how we can have certain knowledge about the world, and how this relates to our relationship with the senses and God.

Descartes Legacy

In 1643, in an open letter to Voetius (Epistola at Veotium), Descartes beautifully wrote how his philosophy

“aims at the knowledge of truths which are acquires by means of the natural light, and which promote the benefit of the human race; by contrast the dominant philosophy, which is taught in the schools and universities, is merely a muddled collection of opinions which are mostly open to doubts…” (AT VIIIB 26; ALQ III 30).

Descartes had wrote this in response to attacks on his philosophy from some of the leading institutions and intellectuals of Europe. In 1642, the Senate of the University of Utrecht condemned the teaching of Cartesian philosophy because it was a direct confrontation for scholastic philosophy.

By this point, Descartes had become a famous intellectual and started corresponding with Princess Elizabeth of Bohemia. This was a philosophically fruitful exchange over a major cornerstone of Cartesian philosophy, the mind-body problem. Princess Elizabeth wanted to know how the mind or ‘the soul’ could interact with the body, if they are completely independent from each other, as Descartes had argued.

The mind-body problems arises from Descartes physical philosophy. If the physical world is completely mechanical, this does not allow ‘free will’ to exist. Instead, Descartes argued the immaterial soul is independent from the mechanical world, thus allowing human freedom to exist. Descartes dedicated his next book to Princess Elizabeth, called the ‘Principles of Philosophy’ published in 1644.

Here he argued for controversial ideas challenging the culture of the day. Subsequently, he spent the next few years responding to criticism and continuing to publish philosophical works on different topics. However, the lack of intellectual freedom and the potentially dangerous controversy over his work pushed him to accept an offer to teach philosophy to Queen Christina of Sweden.

He moved to Sweden in 1649 but did not agree with the harsh winters and climate there. Only a few months later, in February 1650, he contracted pneumonia and died. He was 53 years old.

Descartes continues to be widely taught in philosophy departments around the world. This is partly due to the huge historical influence he had on Europe. Intellectuals have continually grappled with Cartesian ideas for hundreds of years. Many philosophers have written their own philosophy, partly, as a response to Descartes.

However, Descartes main legacy is the beautifully written and easily accessible style of his philosophical writings. Often the reader is invited to meditate with Descartes through a series of philosophical, mental exercises carefully designed to demonstrate with absolutely certainty the truth of his arguments. He writes philosophy as if he was writing a diary. This gently eases the reader into thinking philosophically. Anyone who is interested in philosophy should read Descartes and learn how beautiful it can be.