Rene descartes, a famous French philosopher, scientist and mathematician, 1596 was born in Haile Village, Dulan Province. When he was a teenager, he studied in an elegant Jesuit school-Xuanlita Middle School. At the age of twenty, he obtained a law degree from poitiers-El University. Although Descartes received a good education, he thought that knowledge in any field except mathematics was not perfect. From then on, he no longer continued to receive formal education, but decided to travel to Europe, broaden his horizons and see the world. Because Descartes' family is rich enough to make him carefree and carefree.
Descartes traveled extensively from 16 16 to 1682. He served briefly in three armies (Holland, Bavaria and Hungary), but he obviously didn't take part in any fighting. He also visited Italy, Poland, Denmark and many other countries. During these years, he systematically stated what he thought was the general method of discovering truth. When he was fifty-two, he decided to give a comprehensive description of the world in this way. He settled in Holland at that time. After living there for 25 years, he chose Holland because there was more freedom of thought and he could escape the interference of Paris society.
1629, he wrote a thinking guide, outlining his methods (but this book was never finished, perhaps never intended to be published, and his first edition was not published until more than 50 years after his death). During the period from 1630 to 1634, Descartes studied science in his own way. In order to learn more about anatomy and physiology, he did anatomy himself. He has independently engaged in important research in optics, meteorology, mathematics and other disciplines.
Descartes wanted to introduce his scientific research achievements in a book called The World, but when the book 1633 was about to be finished, he learned that the authorities of the Italian church condemned Galileo because he supported Copernicus' Heliocentrism. Although Descartes was not persecuted by the Catholic authorities in Holland, he decided to be cautious and put the manuscript in a box because he defended Copernicus' theory in the book. However, in 1637, he published the most famous book "Methodology of Correct Thinking and Discovery of Scientific Truth", usually referred to as methodology.
Methodology is written in French instead of Latin and can be read by all literate people, including those who have not studied classical languages. There are three papers attached to methodology, in which Descartes gives examples of manufacturing inventions in his own way. In the first "Optics" paper, Descartes put forward the law of refraction of light (but this law has been discovered by Willebrand snell before); Lenses and many other optical instruments are discussed. Described the function of eyes and the causes of illness; The theory of light was put forward, which opened the curtain for Christian Higgins to systematically expound the theory of light wave later. In his second paper, he first discussed meteorology from a modern perspective, discussed wind and rain, and correctly explained the reasons for the formation of rainbows. He refuted the view that heat is an invisible fluid, pointing out that heat is a correct inference of internal motion forms (but this inference has been put forward by Francis, Bacon and others before). In the third paper, Descartes introduced the most important of all his contributions-analytic geometry. This is an important progress in mathematics, which opened the way for Newton to invent differential.
Perhaps the most interesting thing about Descartes' philosophy comes from his method. Descartes paid great attention to a large number of commonly accepted misconceptions and decided that in order to restore the truth, he had to start from scratch. So he began to doubt everything-everything the teacher taught him, all his noblest beliefs, all common sense concepts, even the existence of the outside world, together with his own existence-in short, everything.
This naturally leads to a question: how can we get rid of this common doubt and gain a reliable understanding of everything? Descartes made a series of creative inferences from the metaphysical point of view, which proved satisfactory results: because of his own existence (I think I am), God exists and the external world exists, which is the starting point of Descartes' theory.
Descartes' method has a double meaning. First of all, he put the basic epistemological question "What is knowledge" at the center of his philosophical system. Early philosophers tried to describe the nature of the world, but Descartes taught us such a problem. How do I know if it's "?" Together, you can't get a satisfactory answer.
Secondly, Descartes thinks that we should start with doubt rather than faith. This is contrary to the views of Saint Augustine and most medieval theologians, who believe that faith comes first. So Descartes did come to the conclusion of orthodox theology. But his readers are more concerned about his advocacy methods than his conclusions (it is not unreasonable for the church to worry that his works will be destructive).
Descartes emphasized the difference between spirit and matter in his philosophy, and in this respect he advocated complete dualism. This distinction has been put forward before, but Descartes' works have caused a philosophical discussion on this issue. The question he raised has aroused the interest of philosophers since then, but it has not been solved.
Descartes' view of the material universe is also very influential. He believes that the whole world-except God and human mind-is in mechanical motion, so all natural things bred can be explained by mechanical reasons. He denies the superstitious forms such as astrology and magic, and all teleological explanations of things (that is, looking for direct mechanical reasons and denying that things happen for some distant ultimate purpose). From Descartes' point of view, animals are essentially complex machines, and human bodies are also governed by the usual mechanical laws. Since then, this has become one of the basic viewpoints of modern physiology.
Descartes advocated scientific research and believed that applying it to practice would benefit society. He believes that scientists should avoid using vague concepts and try to describe the world with mathematical equations. All this sounds modern, but Descartes himself has done observation experiments, but he never emphasized the extreme importance of experiments in scientific methods.
As early as Descartes a few years ago, Francis Bacon, a famous British philosopher, proposed to engage in scientific research and benefit from it. Descartes' famous view of "I think I am" is not new either. Augustine proposed it as early as 1200 years ago (with different words, of course). Similarly, Descartes' "proof" of the existence of God is only a variant of the concept of entity first put forward by Saint Anseur (1033-109). 164 1 year, Descartes published another masterpiece, Meditation. 1644 year, his Philosophical Principles came out. Both works were written in Latin, and their translations were published in 1647.
Although Descartes is a prose writer, his writing style is concise and his sentences are gorgeous, but his style is retro, which makes people wonder. Indeed, his words often make people feel that he is a medieval pedant, which may be the reason why he adopts rationalism. Although Francis Bacon was born thirty-five years before Descartes, he has a modern style.
Descartes' works clearly show that he is a devout believer of God. He thinks he is a good Catholic, but the authority of the church doesn't like his views, and his works are banned by Catholicism. Even in Protestant Holland (perhaps the most tolerant country in Europe at that time), Descartes was accused of being an atheist, and he was troubled by the contradiction with the authority of the church.
1649, Descartes accepted the generous invitation of Queen Christina Christie and came to Stockholm to be her private teacher. Descartes likes warm bedrooms and always gets up late. He was deeply anxious when he learned that the queen wanted him to go to class at five in the morning. Descartes was afraid that the biting wind at five o'clock in the morning would kill him. As expected, he soon contracted pneumonia, and in February of 1650, just four months after he arrived in Sweden, he was killed by the disease.
Descartes never married, but he had a daughter who died in her early years.
Descartes' philosophy was strongly criticized by his contemporaries, to some extent because they felt that there was circular reasoning in it. Later philosophers pointed out many defects in his system, and no one will defend his system today. But the importance of a philosopher does not depend entirely on the correctness of his system. More importantly, it depends on whether his thoughts-more precisely, whether others have absorbed the essence of thoughts from his works-have a wide influence. Based on this, Descartes is undoubtedly an important figure.
Descartes' at least five thoughts have a great influence on European thought: ① mechanical cosmology; ② Positive attitude towards scientific research; ③ Emphasize the application of mathematics in science; ④ Early advocating skepticism; ⑤ Attach importance to epistemology.
When evaluating Descartes' whole influence, I also took into account his unforgettable scientific achievements, especially the invention of analytic geometry. It is this factor that makes me determine that Descartes ranks higher than such outstanding philosophers as Voltaire, Rousseau and Francis Bacon.