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Name: Rene Descartes

Age: 53 years old

Activity: philosopher, mathematician, mechanic, physicist, physiologist

Family status: not married

Rene Descartes: biography

Rene Descartes is a mathematician, philosopher, physiologist, mechanic and physicist, whose ideas and discoveries played a big role in the development of several scientific branches at once. He developed algebraic symbolism, which we still use to this day, became the "father" of analytical geometry, laid the foundations for the development of reflexology, created a mechanism in physics - and these are far from all achievements.

Childhood and youth

René Descartes was born in Lae on March 31, 1596. Subsequently, the name of this city was renamed "Descartes". Rene's parents were representatives of an old noble family, which in the 16th century could barely make ends meet. Rene became the third son in the family. When Descartes was 1 year old, his mother died suddenly. The father of the future famous scientist worked as a judge in another city, so he rarely visited his children. Therefore, after the death of his mother, the grandmother undertook to raise Descartes Jr.

FROM early years René showed an amazing curiosity and desire for knowledge. However, he was in fragile health. The boy received his first education at the Jesuit College of La Flèche. it educational institution different strict regime, but Descartes, given the state of health, was made indulgent in this regime. For example, he could wake up later than other students.

Like most colleges of the time, education at La Flèche was religious in nature. And although study meant a lot to the young Descartes, this orientation of the educational system gave rise to and strengthened in him a critical attitude towards the philosophical authorities of that time.

After completing his studies at the college, René went to Poitiers, where he received a bachelor's degree in law. Then he spent some time in the French capital, and in 1617 he entered military service. The mathematician participated in hostilities in Holland, which was then absorbed by the revolution, as well as in a short battle for Prague. In Holland, Descartes became friends with the physicist Isaac Beckmann.

Then Rene lived in Paris for some time, and when the followers of the Jesuits found out about his bold ideas, he went back to Holland, where he lived for 20 years. Throughout his life, he was persecuted and attacked by the church for progressive ideas that outstripped the level of development of science in the 16th-17th centuries.

Philosophy

The philosophical doctrine of Rene Descartes was characterized by dualism: he believed that there is both an ideal substance and a material one. Both began to be recognized by him as independent. The concept of Rene Descartes also implies the recognition of the presence in our world of two types of entities: thinking and extended. The scientist believed that the source of both entities is God. He forms them according to the same laws, creates matter in parallel with its rest and movement, and also preserves substances.

Rene Descartes saw a peculiar universal method of cognition in rationalism. At the same time, the scientist considered knowledge itself a prerequisite for the fact that man will dominate the forces of nature. According to Descartes, the possibilities of reason are constrained by the imperfection of man, his differences from the perfect God. Rene's reasoning about knowledge in this vein, in fact, laid the foundation for rationalism.

The starting point of most of the searches of Rene Descartes in the field of philosophy was a doubt about the veracity, infallibility of knowledge that is generally recognized. Descartes' quote "I think, therefore I am" is conditioned by these reasonings. The philosopher stated that every person can doubt the existence of his body and even the outer world as a whole. But at the same time, this doubt will remain unambiguously existing.

Mathematics and physics

The main philosophical and mathematical result of the work of Rene Descartes was the writing of the book "Discourse on the Method". The book contains several appendices. One application contained the basics of analytic geometry. Another application included the rules for the study of optical instruments and phenomena, Descartes' achievements in this field (for the first time he correctly compiled the law of refraction of light), and so on.

The scientist introduced the exponent used now, the line above the expression, which is taken as a root, began to designate unknowns with the symbols “x, y, z”, and constant values with the symbols “a, b, c”. The mathematician also developed the canonical form of equations, which is still used today in solving (when zero appears on the right side of the equation).

Another achievement of Rene Descartes, important for the improvement of mathematics and physics, is the development of a coordinate system. The scientist introduced it in order to make possible description geometric properties of bodies and curves in the language of classical algebra. In other words, it was Rene Descartes who made possible analysis curve equations in the Cartesian coordinate system, a special case of which is the well-known rectangular system. This innovation also allowed for a much more detailed and accurate interpretation of negative numbers.

The mathematician explored algebraic and "mechanical" functions, while arguing that there is no single method for studying transcendental functions. Descartes mainly studied real numbers, but began to take complex numbers into account as well. He introduced the concept of imaginary negative roots, conjugated with the concept of complex numbers.

Research in the field of mathematics, geometry, optics and physics subsequently became the basis of the scientific works of Euler and a number of other scientists. All mathematicians of the second half of the 17th century based their theories on the work of René Descartes.

Descartes method

The scientist believed that experience is necessary only to help the mind in those situations where it is impossible to come to the truth solely by reflection. Throughout his scientific life, Descartes carried four main components of the method of searching for truth:

It is necessary to start from the most obvious, not subject to doubt. From that, the opposite of which is even impossible to admit.
Any problem should be divided into as many small parts as it takes to achieve its productive solution.
You should start with a simple one, from which you need to gradually move to more and more complex.
At each stage, it is necessary to double-check the correctness of the conclusions drawn up in order to be confident in the objectivity of the knowledge obtained based on the results of the study.

The researchers note that these rules, which Descartes invariably used when creating his works, clearly demonstrate the desire of the European culture XVII century to the rejection of obsolete rules and to the construction of a new, progressive and objective science.

Personal life

O personal life Little is known about Rene Descartes. Contemporaries argued that in society he was arrogant and silent, preferred solitude to companies, but in the circle of close people he could be amazingly active in communication. René apparently did not have a wife.

AT adulthood he was in love with a maid who bore him a daughter, Francine. The girl was illegitimately born, but Descartes fell in love with her very much. Francine died at the age of five due to scarlet fever. The scientist called her death the biggest tragedy of his life.

Death

Over the years, René Descartes has been hounded for his fresh perspective on science. In 1649 he moved to Stockholm, where he was invited by the Swedish Queen Christina. Descartes corresponded with the latter for many years. Christina was amazed at the genius of the scientist and promised him a quiet life in the capital of her state. Alas, Rene did not enjoy life in Stockholm for long: soon after the move, he caught a cold. The cold quickly developed into pneumonia. The scientist passed away on February 11, 1650.

There is an opinion that Descartes died not because of pneumonia, but because of poisoning. Agents of the Catholic Church, which did not like the presence of a free-thinking scientist next to the Queen of Sweden, could act as poisoners. last Catholic Church intended to convert, which happened four years after the death of René. To date, this version has not received objective confirmation, but many researchers are inclined to it.

Quotes

The main effect of all human passions is that they impel and attune the soul of a person to desire what these passions prepare his body for.
In most disputes, one mistake can be noticed: while the truth lies between two defended views, each of the latter moves away from it the farther away from it, the more fervently it argues.
The ordinary mortal sympathizes with those who complain more, because he thinks that the grief of those who complain is very great, while main reason the pity of great men is the weakness of those from whom they hear complaints.
Philosophy, insofar as it extends to everything accessible to human knowledge, alone distinguishes us from savages and barbarians, and every people is all the more civic and educated, the better they philosophize in it; therefore there is no greater good for the state than to have true philosophers.
The inquisitive seeks out rarities only to wonder at them; the inquisitive is then to get to know them and stop being surprised.

Bibliography

Philosophy of spirit and matter by René Descartes
Rules to guide the mind
Finding Truth Through Natural Light
The World, or a Treatise on Light
Discussing the Method for Rightly Directing Your Mind and Seeking Truth in the Sciences
Philosophy
Description human body. on the education of an animal
Remarks on a program published in Belgium at the end of 1647 under the title: An explanation of the human mind, or rational soul, which explains what it is and what it can be
Passions of the soul
Reflections on the first philosophy, in which the existence of God is proved and the difference between the human soul and body
Objections of some pundits to the above "Reflections" with the answers of the author
To the venerable Father Dina, Provincial Superior of France
Conversation with Burman
Geometry
Cosmogony: Two treatises
Philosophy
Reflections on First Philosophy

Descartes came from an old but impoverished noble family and was the youngest (third) son in the family. He was born on March 31, 1596 in the city of Lae (La Haye en Touraine), now Descartes, department of Indre-et-Loire, France. His mother died when he was 1 year old. Descartes' father was a judge in the city of Rennes and rarely appeared in Lae; The boy was raised by his maternal grandmother. As a child, Rene was distinguished by fragile health and incredible curiosity.

Descartes received his primary education at the Jesuit College La Fleche, where he met Marin Mersenne (then a student, later a priest), the future coordinator scientific life France. Religious education, oddly enough, only strengthened in the young Descartes a skeptical distrust of the then philosophical authorities. Later, he formulated his method of cognition: deductive (mathematical) reasoning on the results of reproducible experiments.

In 1612, Descartes graduated from college, studied law for some time in Poitiers, then went to Paris, where he alternated for several years scattered life with mathematical research. Then he entered the military service (1617) - first in revolutionary Holland (in those years - an ally of France), then in Germany, where he participated in the short battle for Prague (the Thirty Years' War). Descartes spent several years in Paris, indulging scientific work. Among other things, he discovered the principle of virtual speeds, which at that time no one was ready to appreciate.

Then - a few more years of participation in the war (the siege of La Rochelle). Upon his return to France, it turned out that Descartes' free-thinking had become known to the Jesuits, and they accused him of heresy. Therefore, Descartes moved to Holland (1628), where he spent 20 years.

He conducts extensive correspondence with the best scientists in Europe (through the faithful Mersenne), studies a variety of sciences - from medicine to meteorology. Finally, in 1634, he completed his first programmatic book called The World (Le Monde) in two parts: A Treatise on Light and a Treatise on Man. But the moment for publication was unsuccessful - a year earlier, the Inquisition had almost tortured Galileo. Therefore, Descartes decided not to publish this work during his lifetime. He wrote to Mersenne about Galileo's condemnation:

Soon, however, one after another, other books by Descartes appear:

"Reasoning about the method ..." (1637)
"Reflections on the First Philosophy..." (1641)
"Principles of Philosophy" (1644)

In the "Principles of Philosophy" the main theses of Descartes are formulated:

God created the world and the laws of nature, and then the universe acts as an independent mechanism.
There is nothing in the world but moving matter various kinds. Matter consists of elementary particles, the local interaction of which produces everything natural phenomena.
Mathematics is a powerful and universal method of understanding nature, a model for other sciences.

Cardinal Richelieu favorably reacted to the works of Descartes and allowed their publication in France, but the Protestant theologians of Holland put a curse on them (1642); without the support of the Prince of Orange, the scientist would have had a hard time.

In 1635, Descartes had an illegitimate daughter Francine (from a maid). She lived only 5 years (she died of scarlet fever), and he regarded the death of his daughter as the greatest grief in his life.

In 1649, Descartes, exhausted by many years of persecution for free-thinking, succumbed to the persuasion of the Swedish Queen Christina (with whom he actively corresponded for many years) and moved to Stockholm. Almost immediately after the move, he caught a serious cold and soon died. The presumed cause of death was pneumonia. There is also a hypothesis about his poisoning, since the symptoms of Descartes' disease are similar to those of acute poisoning arsenic. This hypothesis was put forward by Aiki Pease, a German scientist, and then supported by Theodor Ebert. The reason for the poisoning, according to this version, was the fear of Catholic agents that the freethinking of Descartes could interfere with their efforts to convert Queen Christina to Catholicism (this conversion actually happened in 1654).

By the end of Descartes' life, the attitude of the church towards his teachings became sharply hostile. Soon after his death, the main works of Descartes were included in the notorious "Index", and Louis XIV by a special decree forbade the teaching of Descartes' philosophy ("Cartesianism") in all educational institutions France.

17 years after the death of the scientist, his remains were transported to Paris (later he was buried in the Pantheon). In 1819, the long-suffering ashes of Descartes were again disturbed, and now rest in the church of Saint-Germain des Pres.

A crater on the Moon is named after the scientist.

Scientific activity

Maths

In 1637, Descartes' main mathematical work, Discourse on the Method (full title: Discourse on the Method, which allows one to direct one's mind and seek truth in the sciences), was published.

Analytic geometry was presented in this book, and numerous results in algebra, geometry, optics (including the correct formulation of the law of refraction of light) and much more were presented in the appendices.

Of particular note is the reworked by him of the mathematical symbolism of Vieta, from that moment close to modern. He denoted the coefficients a, b, c ..., and the unknowns - x, y, z. natural indicator degree accepted modern look(fractional and negative were established thanks to Newton). A line appeared above the radical expression. The equations are reduced to the canonical form (zero on the right side).

Symbolic algebra Descartes called "Universal Mathematics", and wrote that it should explain "everything related to order and measure."

The creation of analytical geometry made it possible to translate the study of the geometric properties of curves and bodies into algebraic language, that is, to analyze the equation of a curve in a certain coordinate system. This translation had the disadvantage that now it was necessary to accurately define the true geometric properties that do not depend on the coordinate system (invariants). However, the merits of the new method were exceptionally great, and Descartes demonstrated them in the same book, discovering many propositions unknown to ancient and contemporary mathematicians.

In the application "Geometry" were given methods for solving algebraic equations(including geometric and mechanical), classification of algebraic curves. New way specifying the curve - with the help of an equation - was a decisive step towards the concept of a function. Descartes formulates a precise "rule of signs" for determining the number positive roots equation, although it does not prove it.

Descartes explored algebraic functions(polynomials), as well as a number of "mechanical" (spirals, cycloid). For transcendental functions, according to Descartes, general method research does not exist.

Complex numbers have not yet been considered by Descartes on an equal footing with positive ones, however, he formulated (although he did not prove) the main theorem of algebra: total number real and complex roots of an equation is equal to its degree. Descartes traditionally called negative roots false, but he combined them with the positive term real numbers, separating them from imaginary (complex). This term has entered mathematics. However, Descartes showed some inconsistency: the coefficients a, b, c ... were considered positive for him, and the case of an unknown sign was specially marked with an ellipsis on the left.

All non-negative real numbers, not excluding irrational ones, are considered by Descartes as equal in rights; they are defined as the ratio of the length of some segment to the length standard. Later, a similar definition of the number was adopted by Newton and Euler. Descartes does not yet separate algebra from geometry, although he changes their priorities; he understands the solution of the equation as the construction of a segment with a length equal to the root of the equation. This anachronism was soon discarded by his students, primarily English, for whom geometric constructions are purely auxiliary reception.

The book "Method" immediately made Descartes a recognized authority in mathematics and optics. It is noteworthy that it was published in French and not in Latin. The appendix "Geometry", however, was immediately translated into Latin and was repeatedly published separately, growing from comments and becoming a reference book for European scientists. The works of mathematicians in the second half of the 17th century reflect the strongest influence of Descartes.

Mechanics and physics

Physical research Descartes relate mainly to mechanics, optics and general structure Universe. The physics of Descartes, in contrast to his metaphysics, was materialistic: the Universe is entirely filled with moving matter and is self-sufficient in its manifestations. Descartes did not recognize indivisible atoms and emptiness, and in his writings he sharply criticized the atomists, both ancient and contemporary to him. In addition to ordinary matter, Descartes singled out an extensive class of invisible subtle matters, with which he tried to explain the action of heat, gravity, electricity and magnetism.

Descartes considered the main types of motion to be motion by inertia, which he formulated (1644) in the same way as Newton later, and material vortices arising from the interaction of one matter with another. He considered interaction purely mechanically, as a collision. Descartes introduced the concept of momentum, formulated (in a non-strict formulation) the law of conservation of motion (momentum), but interpreted it inaccurately, not taking into account that the momentum is a vector quantity (1664).

In 1637, Dioptric was published, which contained the laws of light propagation, reflection and refraction, the idea of ether as a carrier of light, and an explanation of the rainbow. Descartes was the first to mathematically derive the law of refraction of light (regardless of W. Snell) at the boundary of two various environments. The exact formulation of this law made it possible to improve optical instruments, which then began to play a huge role in astronomy and navigation (and soon in microscopy).

Investigated the laws of impact. He suggested that Atmosphere pressure decreases with increasing height. Descartes quite correctly considered heat and heat transfer as proceeding from the movement of small particles of matter.

Other scientific achievements

The largest discovery of Descartes, which became fundamental for subsequent psychology, can be considered the concept of a reflex and the principle of reflex activity. The scheme of the reflex was reduced to the following. Descartes presented the model of the organism as a working mechanism. With this understanding living body no longer requires the intervention of the soul; the functions of the “machine of the body”, which include “perception, imprinting of ideas, retention of ideas in memory, internal aspirations ... are performed in this machine like the movements of a clock.”
Along with the teachings about the mechanisms of the body, the problem of affects (passions) was developed as bodily states that are regulators of mental life. The term "passion" or "affect" in modern psychology indicates certain emotional states.

Philosophy

The philosophy of Descartes was dualistic. He recognized the presence in the world of two objective entities: extended (res extensa) and thinking (res cogitans), while the problem of their interaction was resolved by introducing a common source (God), who, acting as the creator, forms both substances according to the same laws.

The main contribution of Descartes to philosophy was the classical construction of the philosophy of rationalism as universal method knowledge. Reason, according to Descartes, critically evaluates experimental data and deduces from them the true laws hidden in nature, formulated in mathematical language. With skillful application, there are no limits to the power of the mind.

Another essential feature of Descartes' approach was mechanism. Matter (including fine matter) consists of elementary particles, the local mechanical interaction of which produces all natural phenomena. For philosophical outlook Descartes is also characterized by skepticism, criticism of the previous scholastic philosophical tradition.

The self-reliance of consciousness, cogito (Cartesian "I think, therefore I am" - Lat. Cogito, ergo sum), as well as the theory of innate ideas, is the starting point of Cartesian epistemology. Cartesian physics, in contrast to Newtonian, considered everything extended to be corporeal, denying empty space, and described motion using the concept of "vortex"; the physics of Cartesianism subsequently found its expression in the theory of short-range action.

In the development of Cartesianism, two opposite trends emerged:

to materialistic monism (H. De Roy, B. Spinoza)
and to idealistic occasionalism (A. Geylinks, N. Malebranche).

The worldview of Descartes marked the beginning of the so-called. Cartesianism, presented

Dutch (Baruch da Spinoza),
German (Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz)
and French (Nicole Malebranche)

Method of radical doubt

The starting point of Descartes' reasoning is the search for the undoubted foundations of all knowledge. Skepticism has always been a prominent feature of the French mind, as well as the desire for mathematical accuracy of knowledge. During the Renaissance, the Frenchmen Montaigne and Charron skillfully transplanted into French literature the skepticism of the Greek school of Pyrrho. Mathematical sciences flourished in France in the 17th century.

Skepticism and the quest for perfect mathematical precision are two different expressions of the same trait of the human mind: the strenuous striving to achieve absolutely certain and logically unshakable truth. They are completely opposite:

on the one hand, empiricism, content with approximate and relative truth,
on the other - mysticism, which finds special rapture in direct supersensible, transrational knowledge.

Descartes had nothing to do with either empiricism or mysticism. If he was looking for the highest absolute principle of knowledge in the direct self-consciousness of man, then it was not about any mystical revelation of the unknown basis of things, but about a clear, analytical disclosure of the most general, logically irrefutable truth. Its discovery was for Descartes a condition for overcoming the doubts with which his mind struggled.

These doubts and the way out of them he finally formulates in the "Principles of Philosophy" as follows:

Thus, Descartes found the first solid point for building his worldview - the basic truth of our mind that does not require any further proof. From this truth it is already possible, according to Descartes, to go further to the construction of new truths.

First of all, analyzing the meaning of the proposition "cogito, ergo sum", Descartes establishes a criterion of reliability. Why is a certain state of mind unconditionally certain? We have no other criterion than the psychological, internal criterion of clarity and separateness of representation. It is not experience that convinces us of our being as a thinking being, but only a distinct decomposition of the immediate fact of self-consciousness into two equally inevitable and clear representations, or ideas, thinking and being. Against syllogism as a source of new knowledge, Descartes armed himself almost as vigorously as Bacon had earlier, considering it not as a tool for discovering new facts, but only as a means of presenting truths already known, obtained in other ways. The combination of the mentioned ideas in consciousness is, therefore, not an inference, but a synthesis, it is an act of creativity, just as the perception of the magnitude of the sum of the angles of a triangle in geometry. Descartes was the first to hint at the significance of the question that later played the main role in Kant, namely, the question of the meaning of a priori synthetic judgments.

Proof of the Existence of God

Having found the criterion of certainty in distinct, clear ideas (ideae clarae et distinctae), Descartes then undertakes to prove the existence of God and to clarify the basic nature of the material world. Since the conviction of the existence of a corporeal world is based on the data of our sense perception, and we do not yet know about the latter whether it deceives us unconditionally, we must first find a guarantee of at least a relative certainty of sense perceptions. Such a guarantee can only be a perfect being who created us, with our feelings, the idea of which would be incompatible with the idea of deception. We have a clear and distinct idea of such a being, but meanwhile, where did it come from? We ourselves recognize ourselves as imperfect only because we measure our being by the idea of an all-perfect being. This means that this latter is not our invention, nor is it a conclusion from experience. It could be instilled in us, invested in us only by the all-perfect being himself. On the other hand, this idea is so real that we can divide it into logically clear elements: complete perfection is conceivable only under the condition of possessing all properties in the highest degree, and therefore complete reality infinitely superior to our own reality.

Thus, from the clear idea of an all-perfect being, the reality of the existence of God is deduced in two ways:

firstly, as a source of the very idea about him - this is a psychological proof, so to speak;
secondly, as an object, the properties of which necessarily include reality - this is the so-called ontological proof, that is, passing from the idea of being to the assertion of the very being of the being conceivable.

Yet together the Cartesian proof of the existence of God must be recognized, according to the expression

What the French mathematician, philosopher, physicist, mechanic and physiologist, the creator of modern algebraic symbolism and analytic geometry discovered, you will learn from this article.

Rene Descartes discoveries and contributions to science

Rene Descartes main ideas in philosophy

Descartes adhered to a dualistic philosophy, recognizing the presence of 2 entities in the world: thinking and extended. They interact under the authority of the creator - God, who forms both entities according to one law. But his main contribution is that he compared philosophy as classical rationalism with the universal method of cognition. Philosopher highlights special category- intelligence. He owns special role- Evaluation of experimental data and derivation of hidden true laws in a new, mathematical language. And the power of the mind has no limits, subject to skillful application.

Another important feature of Descartes' philosophy is mechanism and skepticism. He is convinced that matter of any nature consists of a large number elementary particles that interact locally and mechanically, producing natural phenomena. René Descartes was critical of the scholastic philosophical tradition.

Descartes contribution to biology

The scientist became famous not only as a true philosopher. His contributions to biology are also great. What did Rene Descartes do? He was engaged in the study of the structure of all organs of animals and their embryos on different stages development. Descartes was the first to attempt to elucidate the essence of arbitrary and involuntary movements. He also owns a description of the scheme of reflex reactions: centrifugal and centripetal parts of the arc.

Rene Descartes contribution to psychology

His largest discovery in psychology, which had a further impact, was the introduction of the concept of "reflex" and the development of the principle of reflex activity. The Cartesian scheme was a model of an organism in the form of a working mechanism. In his understanding, the living body does not need the intervention of the soul. In addition, he developed the problem of passions as a bodily state, which is the regulator of mental life.

Rene Descartes contribution to medicine

He tried to explain how it works locomotive apparatus, kidney function, lung ventilation mechanisms and so on. However, everyone did it the scholars of that period of time. But his breakthrough is that Descartes explained the work human eye in terms of optical laws. His views were very progressive.

Rene Descartes contribution to mathematics

In his work "Geometry" (1637), he introduced the concepts of "function" and "variable". variable Descartes represented in a double form - as a part of variable length with a constant direction, the coordinate of a point that describes a curve with its movement and as a continuous variable with a set of numbers expressing a given segment. Rene Descartes initiated the study of the properties of equations. Together with P. Fermat, he developed analytical geometry and created the coordinate method.

We hope that from this article you have learned what are the main discoveries of Rene Descartes in different areas science.

Rene Descartes is a French mathematician, philosopher, physicist, physiologist, the most authoritative metaphysician of the New Age, a scientist who laid the foundations of analytic geometry, modern algebraic symbolism, and New European rationalism. Descartes, who was born on March 31, 1596 in the city of Lae, the French province of Touraine, was the son of an adviser, a descendant of the impoverished noble family of de Cartes, who later gave the name to Cartesianism - a philosophical direction.

The first institution where he received an education was the Jesuit College of La Flèche, where his father placed Rene in 1606. The religious nature of education paradoxically weakened Descartes' confidence in scholastic philosophy. Within the walls of the college, fate brought him to M. Mersenne, who became his friend and, being a mathematician, later served as a link between Descartes and the scientific community.

After graduating from a Jesuit school, he entered the University of Poitiers, where in 1616 he received a bachelor's degree in law. AT next year Descartes joined the military and traveled to many places in Europe. While in Holland in 1618, Rene made acquaintance with a man who, in to a large extent influenced his formation as a scientist - it was Isaac Beckman, a famous physicist and natural philosopher. The key year for scientific biography was, according to Descartes himself, 1619, and, most likely, we are talking about the discovery of a universal method of cognition, which consisted in mathematical reasoning, the object of which was the results of practical experiments.

Descartes' love of freedom did not escape the attention of the Jesuits, who accused him of heresy. In 1628, the disgraced scientist left his native France for two decades, moving to Holland. In this country, he did not have a permanent place of residence, moving from one city to another. The first book of program content, The World, was written in 1634, but the scientist decided not to publish it: everyone heard Galileo, who almost became a victim of the Inquisition. In 1637, his essay “Discourse on Method” was published, which many researchers consider the start of modern European philosophy.

The main philosophical work of Descartes - “Reflections on the First Philosophy”, written in Latin, was published in 1641, three years later his “Principles of Philosophy” was published, in which natural philosophical and metaphysical views were combined. Last work philosophical content, "Passion of the Soul", was published in 1649 and significantly influenced the development of European thought. paid great attention Descartes and mathematics, which also played a huge role in the development of this science. In 1637, his work "Geometry" saw the light; with the introduction of a new method of coordinates, they began to talk about him as the founder of analytic geometry.

The works of Descartes were published in France thanks to the favor of Cardinal Richelieu, but they were condemned by Dutch theologians. Finally tired of years persecution, the scientist agreed to the invitation of Queen Christina of Sweden, with whom he had many years of correspondence, and in 1649 moved to Stockholm. A tough schedule (in order to fulfill the instructions of the royal person, to teach her, he had to get up at five in the morning), the cold climate led to the fact that he caught a bad cold and died on February 11, 1650 from pneumonia. There is a version linking the death of Descartes with arsenic poisoning: allegedly, forces went to the crime, fearing that under the influence of a freedom-loving mentor, Christina would not become a Catholic.

After his death, the main works of the scientist were included in the list of banned literature, and the philosophy of Descartes was banned from studying in French educational institutions. The remains of Descartes, 17 years after the funeral, were transported to their homeland, to the chapel of the abbey of Saint-Germain des Pres. In 1792, it was planned to rebury his ashes in the Pantheon, but these intentions remained unfulfilled.

Rene Descartes was born on March 31, 1596 in the French city of Lae in a family with noble roots. In his biography, René Descartes was raised by his grandmother after the death of his mother. He studied at La Fleche College, where he received a religious education. In 1618 he began to study legal issues while also doing math. In 1617 he entered the Dutch army. Together with the German army, he fought in the battle for Prague.

After returning to France, Descartes moves again. Because of accusations of heresy, he decided to settle in Holland. In those days, he devotes a lot of time to science. Descartes' Discourse on Method was published in 1637. Following him came out: "Reflections on the First Philosophy", "Principles of Philosophy". For many years the biography of the mathematician Descartes, his works were not recognized. Shortly after moving to Stockholm in 1649, Descartes died.

The main mathematical works of Descartes - "Reasoning about the method" (the book outlines the questions of analytic geometry), appendices to the book. The scientist also considered the symbolism of Vieta, polynomials, solutions of algebraic equations, complex numbers(the mathematician called them "false"). In addition, in his biography, Rene Descartes studied mechanics, optics, reflex activity person.

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