René Descartes

Overview

René Descartes trained in law and mathematics before turning to philosophy, and his mathematical background shows in his method: strip a problem down to what can be known with certainty, then rebuild from there step by step. In the Meditations, he doubts the reliability of his senses, the existence of the physical world, and even the truths of mathematics, arriving at the one thing he cannot doubt: that he is thinking, and therefore exists. From that starting point, cogito ergo sum, he tries to reestablish the existence of God and the external world on firm rational ground. His Discourse on the Method, written in French rather than the usual academic Latin, is a shorter and more autobiographical introduction to the same method.

Where to start reading

• Discourse on the Method 1637

  A partly autobiographical introduction to Descartes' method of doubt and reasoning, written in French for a wider audience than academic Latin allowed.

  Read it in the library

• Meditations on First Philosophy 1641

  Descartes' major philosophical work, working through radical doubt to the cogito and then rebuilding knowledge of God and the external world.

Part of

• Rationalism

Sources

1. René Descartes Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
2. Descartes Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy