René Descartes

1596 – 1650 · France → Netherlands · Enlightenment

The doubter who rebuilt knowledge from the certainty of a thinking self — and set philosophy's mind-body problem in motion.

Core ideas

Doubt everything that can be doubted; keep only the indubitable
I think, therefore I am
Mind and body are distinct substances

Historical context

A soldier-engineer-mathematician who did his best thinking in bed and in the Dutch Republic's quiet — publishing the Meditations in 1641, with objections and replies appended.

Key works

Meditations on First Philosophy · Discourse on Method

Questions they speak to

What can I know?
Who am I?
What is real?

Minds in conversation

Al-GhazaliTus, Persia
Baruch SpinozaAmsterdam
Immanuel KantKönigsberg

Sources

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy — Descartes