The Life of Rene Descartes

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By Peretz Eisenberg and James Langer

Early Life• Rene Descartes was born on

March 31st 1596, in La Haye en Touraine, Indre et-Loire, France.

• His father, Joachim, was a judge in the French High Court of Justice.

• He was born to a wealthy family and was second of a family of two brothers and one sister.

• When Descartes was 8 years old he attended the Jesuit College Royal Henry-Le-Grand at La Fleche where he studied many subjects but excelled in mathematics.

Post-High School• Upon graduation from Jesuit School, Descartes

travelled to Paris and was there introduced to the world of fashion.

• There he met an old school friend, Mersenne, and together they spent two years (1615-1616) devoted entirely to the study of mathematics

• At that point due to social stigma was forced to either join the church or the army. Descartes joined the army of Prince Maurice of Orange and was sent to Breda.

Mathematic Genius• Descartes met Isaac Beckman on the streets of

Breda when he asked him to translate a problem and Beckman had Descartes figure out the problem, which was of extreme difficulty in hours.

• He volunteered to stay in the army, and served under Count de Bucqouy in Bavaria at the commencement of the Thirty Years’ War.

Post-Army• He resigned from the army

in the spring of 1621 and spent five years travelling and studying mathematics.

• In 1626 he settled in Paris; during the first two years he became more interested in general society.

• In 1628 Descartes met Cardinal de Berulle, founder of the Oratorians, who was much impressed by Descartes and his conversation about devoting his life to the examination of truth.

• Descartes agreed strongly and thus moved to Holland in order to prevent himself from interrupting his studies.

Studies in Holland• He lived in Holland for twenty years, every

moment of which he spent studying mathematics and philosophy.

• He spend the first four years (1629-1633) in Holland writing Le Monde, which was an attempt to give a physical theory of the universe.

• He then wrote a treatise on universal sciences, which was published at Leyden in 1637 titled Discours de la méthode pour bien conduire sa raison et chercher la vérité dans les sciences. The treatise was accompanied by three appendices entitled La Dioptrique, Les Meteores and La Geometrie.

• Then in 1641, he published a work called Meditatones, which was an explanation of his views on philosophy as sketched out in the Discours. In 1644 Descartes issued the Principia Philosophiae, most of what is about physical science, mostly the laws of motion and the theory of vortices.

The End of an Enlightened Life

In 1647 Descartes received a pension from the French court in honour of the contributions he made to society through his discoveries. We was invited by the Queen of Sweden to come and visit, and died months later from inflammation of the lungs.