Rene Descartes: The Father Of Modern Philosophy
Rene Descartes lived from 1596 to 1650. He was born in France, and went to a Jesuit primary school. He earned a law degree, but later on he began focusing on math and logic in the world. During the early 17th century, his ideas deviated more and more from previous philosophers. Because of this, he became known as “The Father of Modern Philosophy.” While some of his ideas weren’t completely original, his way of getting to them was. He believed in totally ignoring everything previous philosophers had done, and starting new, as if their work had never happened. He did not even trust his own emotions. He also believed that consciousness was the only truth in the world, leading to his most famous statement, “I think; therefore I am.” He also published several books, and despite his late entrance in the subject, and early death, he is still one of the most
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First, he would accept only the pieces of information that he knew to be true. Just because a previous philosopher had stated that some information was true, or because it seemed true at first glance, did not mean that the information was true. The skepticism and methodic doubt first used would weed out what was not true from what was. Then, the problem he was thinking about at the time would be divided up into as many parts as possible. This part would be to keep the mind focused on actually solving the problem, and not getting caught up in another, totally unrelated part of it. An example of this would be asking the question, “What font is used in this paper?” The most important parts of the question are, “font” and “paper,” so everything else shouldn’t be focused on. The answer can be found by those two words alone. Descartes’s refusal to trust previous philosophers influenced his works by allowing him to discard the truth from falsity inherited by
First, he would accept only the pieces of information that he knew to be true. Just because a previous philosopher had stated that some information was true, or because it seemed true at first glance, did not mean that the information was true. The skepticism and methodic doubt first used would weed out what was not true from what was. Then, the problem he was thinking about at the time would be divided up into as many parts as possible. This part would be to keep the mind focused on actually solving the problem, and not getting caught up in another, totally unrelated part of it. An example of this would be asking the question, “What font is used in this paper?” The most important parts of the question are, “font” and “paper,” so everything else shouldn’t be focused on. The answer can be found by those two words alone. Descartes’s refusal to trust previous philosophers influenced his works by allowing him to discard the truth from falsity inherited by