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Descartes: The Essential Collection

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René Descartes was a French philosopher, mathematician, and writer. Descartes is often called the Father of Modern Philosophy, and much of early Western philosophy is a response to his writings. Descartes writing are still studied closely to this day. Descartes was also influential in mathematics; the Cartesian coordinate system — allowing reference to a point in space as a set of numbers, and allowing algebraic equations to be expressed as geometric shapes in a two-dimensional coordinate system (and conversely, shapes to be described as equations) — was named after him. Descartes was also one of the key figures in the Scientific Revolution and has been described as an example of genius. This collection contains four of his major • Rules For The Direction Of The Mind (1628) • Discourse On The Method (1637) • Meditations On First Philosophy (1641) • Principles Of Philosophy (1644) Audiobooks of the works Discourse On The Method and Meditations On First Philosophy are included free of charge. Simply follow the link at the end of the collection.

276 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 18, 2014

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René Descartes

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Meditations on First Philosophy (1641) and Principles of Philosophy (1644), main works of French mathematician and scientist René Descartes, considered the father of analytic geometry and the founder of modern rationalism, include the famous dictum "I think, therefore I am."

A set of two perpendicular lines in a plane or three in space intersect at an origin in Cartesian coordinate system. Cartesian coordinate, a member of the set of numbers, distances, locates a point in this system. Cartesian coordinates describe all points of a Cartesian plane.

From given sets, {X} and {Y}, one can construct Cartesian product, a set of all pairs of elements (x, y), such that x belongs to {X} and y belongs to {Y}.

Cartesian philosophers include Antoine Arnauld.



René Descartes, a writer, highly influenced society. People continue to study closely his writings and subsequently responded in the west. He of the key figures in the revolution also apparently influenced the named coordinate system, used in planes and algebra.

Descartes frequently sets his views apart from those of his predecessors. In the opening section of the Passions of the Soul , a treatise on the early version of now commonly called emotions, he goes so far to assert that he writes on his topic "as if no one had written on these matters before." Many elements in late Aristotelianism, the revived Stoicism of the 16th century, or earlier like Saint Augustine of Hippo provide precedents. Naturally, he differs from the schools on two major points: He rejects corporeal substance into matter and form and any appeal to divine or natural ends in explaining natural phenomena. In his theology, he insists on the absolute freedom of act of creation of God.

Baruch Spinoza and Baron Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz later advocated Descartes, a major figure in 17th century Continent, and the empiricist school of thought, consisting of Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, George Berkeley, and David Hume, opposed him. Leibniz and Descartes, all well versed like Spinoza, contributed greatly. Descartes, the crucial bridge with algebra, invented the coordinate system and calculus. Reflections of Descartes on mind and mechanism began the strain of western thought; much later, the invention of the electronic computer and the possibility of machine intelligence impelled this thought, which blossomed into the Turing test and related thought. His stated most in §7 of part I and in part IV of Discourse on the Method .

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Profile Image for Lavleen Sharma.
35 reviews9 followers
September 12, 2020
Rene's inquisitive nature is akin to that of Darwin or Dawkins. He is more like a friend to the reader. Just extraordinarily he looks at simple things and draws simple philosophies. Now, when I say simple I don't mean easy - I mean it elegant wise. The chapter where he talks about the human heart, the dissection and everything shows his acuity in the medical science. His mathematical prowess is undeniable and I could not grasp most of it. Someday I may, with the help of someone.

Reading Rene Descartes gives one a sense of an exclusive seat to be entitled to inquire. I think that idea at his time was phenomenal. Same for this day.
Profile Image for Matthew Blokzyl.
61 reviews1 follower
May 24, 2021
Enjoyable read

A great primer on Des Cartes. I had never read him before and this collection gave me a good dose.
Profile Image for Norman.
1 review
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April 4, 2022
As expected and many outdated and plain wrong thoughts.
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