Discourse on Method and Meditations on First Philosophy

Rene Descartes was born on March 31, 1569. He was a French philosopher, mathematician, and scientist. Around the age of 30, he served in the Dutch States Army of Maurice of Nassau, Prince of Orange and the Stadtholder of the United Provinces. Despite his being well-known for his philosophical writing, Descartes’s influence is also seen in the field of mathematics, with his contribution of the Cartesian coordinate system as well as being the founder of analytical geometry (that branch of mathematics that bridges the gap between algebra and geometry), which was influential for the discovery of infinitesimal calculus and analysis.

In addition to his contributions in mathematics, Descartes’s philosophical writings had a profound and lasting impact regarding Christianity and Church Doctrine. His emphasis on the human individual as an agent in their own right helped bring about what is sometimes termed an “anthropocentric revolution,” thereby displacing the long standing theological assumption that humanity was simply a passive subject of revealed and divine truths. In the latter years of his life, Descartes served as the teacher to Queen Christina of Sweden, despite the fact that Queen Christina had little interest in the teaching and philosophy of Descartes himself. It was during this period that Descartes would contract pneumonia, of which he would die on February 11, 1650, at the age of 53.