10 Interesting Rene Descartes Facts

Tuesday, February 3rd 2015. | People


Rene Descartes Facts talk about the father of modern philosophy. He was famous as the mathematician, philosopher, and writer from French. Even though he was French, he spent most of his life in Dutch Republic. This man contributed a lot of the development of western philosophy. Until this present day, people still study his works.

Rene Descartes Facts 1: life span

Descartes was born on 31 March 1596 in La Haye en Touraine, France and passed away on 11 February 1650. Today, his place of birth is called Decartes.

Rene Descartes Facts 2: parents

His mother was Jeanne Brochard. She died when Descartes was only one year old. His father was a member of Parlement of Brittany at Rennes named Joachim Descartes.

Rene Descartes Facts

Rene Descartes Facts

Rene Descartes Facts 3: the early life

Due to the death of his mother, the young Rene had to live with his great uncle and grandmother. He lived in the Poitou region controlled by Protestant Huguenots. But Descartes’ family was Roman Catholic.

Rene Descartes Facts 4: education

Descartes went to Jesuit Collège Royal Henry-Le-Grand at La Flèche in 1607. In the college, he was familiar with the work of Galileo, physics and mathematics. Find out another mathematician in Srinivasa Ramanujan facts.

Rene Descartes Image

Rene Descartes Image

Rene Descartes Facts 5: the wish of his father

His father wished that Descartes would become a lawyer someday. Therefore, he was asked him to study at University of Poitiers for two years after his graduation from the college. He got Baccalauréat and Licence in law. Then he relocated to Paris.

Rene Descartes Facts 6: Discourse on the Method

One of the interesting books of Descartes is Discourse on the Method. When you read the book, you will know that Descartes spent his entire young life visiting courts, armies and traveling.

Rene Descartes Pic

Rene Descartes Pic

Rene Descartes Facts 7: Cartesian coordinate system

Cartesian coordinate system was named after him. This system allowed the people to express the algebraic equations in geometric shapes.

Rene Descartes Facts 8: the father of analytical geometry

Descartes is called as the father of analytical geometry. He created a bridge between geometry and algebra.  It led the discovery of calculus and analysis.

Rene Descartes Young

Rene Descartes Young

Rene Descartes Facts 9: scientific revolution

He is one of the important figures in scientific revolution. Many people called him as intelligent and genius person. Get facts about Pythagoras here.

Rene Descartes Facts 10: philosophy

Descartes is a philosopher too. He stated about the absolute freedom of God’s act creation in his theology. The one who set the 17th century continental rationalism was Descartes.

Rene Descartes

Rene Descartes

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