Rene Descartes

Running Head: RENE DESCARTES: THE REVOLUTIONARY IN THE SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION

Rene Descartes: The Revolutionary in the Scientific Revolution
Andrea L. Mercado
Devry University

The Scientific Revolution was a period of time where people began to think about why things happened and really started to question how such things happened. Critical thinkers and scientists were brought to light. The people expressed curiosity in what they have believed in and practiced in religion. They asked themselves that maybe God was not the reason for so many things on planet Earth. This was not to be confused with the belief of Atheists at this time. God was still a part of their life but did not play a sole purpose in the reason for existence of organisms on earth. The Scientific Revolution had numerous amounts of important people that had driven these thoughts. One of high importance was Rene Descartes. He was considered to be the Revolutionary of the Scientific Revolution (Perry, 2009).

Rene Descartes was a French scientist who was born on 1596 and laid to rest in 1650 (Skirry, 2008). He was a philosopher that confronted his thoughts and questions of how existence came about. Descartes had an epiphany and thought to himself that maybe everything they have ever known and practiced was not true. He started his studies only knowing minimal facts that were proven. This was in fact of his existence on earth and of his own mind. Descartes believed that people should start thinking for themselves and to not just act on what they know from tradition. He thought that he should challenge everything he was grown to believe in. Descartes believed in God but he also believed that matter was created elsewhere. Descartes almost places himself outside his body and looks at everything and considers it false. His method was to challenge all that was known to be true. He was overwhelmed with doubt that eventually drove the growth of science and mathematics as we know today. One of Descartes most famous reasoning’s was Cogito, ergo sum which meant “I think, therefore I am”. In this reading he clearly explains his thought process. He believed that his ability and the people’s ability to think of things and make any thoughts made him a real human being. People were intrigued by what he was saying as others were mad saying that if it were true than what about god?
While he caused rivalry between peoples thoughts and traditions about god he frequently traveled to spread word of his thinking process as well as running from controversy. With rivalry and traveling, Descartes had gained supporters as people were becoming more aware of his reasons. Some followers included Queen of Sweden and Princess Elisabeth.
Descartes really brought out the people to start thinking from their own minds. He taught in his readings that everything could be learned about nature and earth if the person could build reason and be motivated to find the truth (Perry, 2009). Rene Descartes work within the Scientific Revolution weakened the traditional religion of Christianity (Perry, 2009). It no longer allowed people to solely believe in just God and his believed role. Without Rene Descartes questioning mind, the world would have had a longer path to find reason with mathematics and philosophy. His work inspired others to ask the question of “why” and seek out an answer based on that evidence with deductive reasoning. While a challenge to most back in that time, he was an inspiration to his followers and shed a large light on the future while respectfully turning his back on decades of tradition and belief.

Resources

Perry, M., Chase, Myrna., Jacob, J.R, & Jacob, M. (2009). Western Civilization: Ideas, Politics, and Society (9th ed. ). NY: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

Skirry, J (2008, Sept 13). Rene Descartes. Retrieved November 7, 2012 from Nebraska-Wesleyan University, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy: A Peer Reviewed Academic Resource Web site: http://www.iep.utm.edu/descarte/