Nom: Rene Descartes

BY DEEPTI MAHAJAN 

http://nibiryukov.narod.ru/nb_pinacoteca/nbe_pinacoteca_artists_h.htm

 

 

Pays/Ville

I have no permanent home as I find it necessary to move every time my privacy is threatened. I have lived in Holland the longest as I feel it is the safest for any of my liberal ideas.

 

 

Details Personnels:

The reason I decided to pursue the truth of science came to me on November 10th, 1619. This revelation arrived in the form of a series of three dreams, containing symbols expressing the unity of science. Keeping these dreams in mind, I took the first steps in creating a new, radical mindset in science and becoming the first to write about analytic geometry.

 

Date de Naissance:

March 31, 1596

 

Date de Mort:

February 11, 1650

 

Sexe:

Male

 

Croyances Religieuses:

I am Catholic despite my pursuance of science, andI believe that the process of discvovery in science can never be used to find the truth of God.

 

Situation de Famille:

Single, but I had a daughter with my serving-girl, Helene

 

Enfants:

Francine, 1635-1640

Unfortunately, my daughter lived only until the age of 5

 

En Cherchant:

Truth

 

Metier:

Philosopher, mathematician and scientist

Also, briefly a gentleman soldier (one who becomes a soldier just for the social benefits and to travel)

 

Interets/Loisirs:

• Searching for the truth
• Studying all types of science, such as physics, astronomy, meteorology, optics, embryology, anatomy, physiology, psychology, geology, medecine, and nutrition.
• Writing books based on my endless quest
• Music

 

Accomplissements:

• Discours de la Methode, 1637
• La Géométrie, an appendix on analytic geometry
• Compendium Musicae, text on musical theory
• Employed by the queen of Sweden (Queen Christina) to be her tutor, but the cold eventually led to my death through pneumonia

 

Education:

• La Flèche school, where I displayed promise in mathematics
• l'Université de Poitiers, where I completed my law degree

  

Musique Preferee:

Baroque

  

Un mot pour me describer:

Original

 

J'ai une influence sur:

• Isaac Newton
• French scientists such as:
  • Louis de la Forge
  • Jaques Rohault
  • Nicolas Malebranche

 

Citation Memorable:

"Je pense, donc je suis" -Descartes (I think, therefore I am)

 

Mon Influence sur la Culture Francaise

     I have not just had a great influence on French culture, but on the entire Western Europe and even the entire world today. My invention of analytic geometry is a principal contributor of mathematical progress and the key to everyday operations sucha as using maps and graphs. The idea of creating algebraic equations to model geometric situations, used constantly in engineering and other areas was discussed in my appendix, La Géométrie.

     Also very impactful were my thoughts on science in general. Before my time, when Aristotelian ideas were popular, the branches of science differed greatly in method because the objects they studied were unlike each other. My first publication, Rules for the Direction of the Mind, addressed this faulty concept. My opinion on this particular notion of Aristotle was that science is all the same at the core and that there should be only one method of reasoning in all of science. This reasoning, I wrote, consist of a process based on solid ground. Since mathematics is a completely concrete study, this method naturally consisted of intuition and deduction, as it is in mathematics.

     The use of intuition and deduction as the two main steps in the process of scientific discovery was also rooted in my persistence for all scientific claims to be original. Instead of blindly accepting what others before myself or what the powerful declared was true, I lived by my own convictions and studied various fields of science with only my own observations and deductions to aid me. In this fashion, I wrote one of my most significant works, Discours de la Methode. Therefore, my contributions were not only to mathematics, but to the very nature of scientific discovery.

 

 

Some visual examples of my influence 

   

Resources:

"René Descartes." Encyclopedia of World Biography, 2nd ed. 17 Vols. Gale Research, 1998.

Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale, 2009.

http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/BioRC

 

"René Descartes." World of Scientific Discovery. Online. Thomson Gale, 2006.

Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale, 2009.

http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/BioRC

 

"René Descartes." Math & Mathematicians: The History of Math Discoveries around the World. Online Edition. U*X*L, 2008.

Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale, 2009. http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/BioRC

 

Garber, Daniel (1998, 2003). "Descartes, René". In E. Craig (Ed.), Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy. London: Routledge. Retrieved June 06, 2009, from http://www.rep.routledge.com/article/DA026SECT13