Rene Descartes,French mathematician and philosopher (31st March 1596 - 11 February 1650). 1835 Steel engraving in "The Gallery of Portraits" by W. Holl with later colouring after an original by Frans Hals 1649. Descartes created co-ordinate geometry,a bridge between algebra and geometry,now known as Cartesian geometry. He is considered a founding father of modern philosophy,famous for his statement "Cogito ergo sum" - "I think,therefore I am" (from his 'Discourses on the Method' 1637). He also concluded that as animals are not rational (or can be explained such) they can parsimoniously be considered as machines. As a rationalist philosopher he is regarded as the first to provide a philosophical basis for the Life Sciences by methodological scepticism. He was later opposed by empiricist philosophers,also influential in the life sciences,such as Locke,Rousseau,Hobbes and Hume |