French philosopher, mathematician, and scientist (1596–1650)
René Descartes (March 31, 1596 – February 11, 1650) was a highly influential French philosopher, mathematician, physicist and writer. He is known for his influential arguments for substance dualism, where mind and body are considered to have distinct essences, one being characterized by thought, the other by spatial extension. He has been dubbed the "Father of Modern Philosophy" and the "Father of Modern Mathematics." He is also known as Cartesius.
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so that even although he had from the beginning given it no other form than that of chaos, provided only he had established certain laws of nature, and had lent it his concurrence to enable it to act as it is wont to do, it may be believed, without discredit to the miracle of creation, that, in this way alone, things purely material might, in course of time, have become such as we observe them at present; and their nature is much more easily conceived when they are beheld coming in this manner gradually into existence, than when they are only considered as produced at once in a finished and perfect state.
Several years have now passed since I fi rst realized how numerous were the false opinions that in my youth I had taken to be true, and thus how doubtful were all those that I had subsequently built upon them. And thus I realized that
once in my life I had to raze everything to the ground and begin again from the
original foundations, if I wanted to establish anything firm and lasting in the sciences.
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Και από τη συνήθεια έτσι, απελευθερώθηκα σταδιακά από πολλά σφάλματα που μπορούν να επισκιάσουν το φυσικό φως μας και να περιορίσουν την ικανότητα μας να αφουγκραστούμε τη λογική. Όμως αφού πέρασα μερικά χρόνια μελετώντας όλα αυτά στο βιβλίο του κόσμου και προσπαθώντας να αποκτήσω κάποια εμπειρία, πήρα μια μέρα την απόφαση να μελετήσω και τον εαυτό μου και να αξιοποιήσω όλες τις πνευματικές δυνάμεις μου για να επιλέξω τους δρόμους που έπρεπε να ακολουθήσω.
But even if all agreed together, it would not be enough to have their teachings. For we shall never be mathematicians, say, even if we retain in memory all the proofs others have given, unless we ourselves have the mental aptitude of solving any given problem; we shall never be philosophers, if we have read all the arguments of Plato and Aristotle but cannot form a solid judgment on matters set before us; this sort of learning would appear historical rather than scientific. Further, this Rule counsels us against ever mixing up any conjectures with our judgments as to the truth of things. It is of no small importance to observe this; for the chief reason why in the common philosophy there is nothing to be found whose certitude is so apparent as to be beyond controversy is that those who practice it have not begun by contenting themselves with the recognition of what is clear and certain, but have ventured on the further assertion of what was obscure and unknown and was arrived at only through probable conjectures. These assertions they have later on themselves gradually come to hold with complete confidence, and have mixed them up indiscriminately with evident truths; and the final result was their inability to draw any conclusion that did not seem to depend on some such proposition, and consequently to draw any that was not uncertain.