10 René Descartes's Contributions to Philosophy and Humanity

Between the Contributions by René Descartes More noteworthy are the development of geometry, a new scientific methodology, the Cartesian Law or its contribution to modern philosophy and thought.

Descartes (1596-1650), was a French philosopher, mathematician and scientist. Its formation was provided by the education imparted in the Jesuit School of the Flèche, where it occupied desk from the eight years until the sixteen.

Discards and their contributions were very important for humanity

Later, it studied Law in the University of Poitiers, race of which was licensed in 1616. However, this thinker never got to practice this profession.

If it demonstrated intentions to integrate to the military race, being integrated in 1618 in the service of the prince Mauricio I of Nassau-Orange. Later it would be part of other armies.

However, Rene Descartes' real passions were oriented towards the understanding of the problems of mathematics and those concerning the field of philosophy.

These preoccupations were so deep that, after devoting his whole life to this field, the analysis of them made him the father of modern philosophy.

Their contributions were diverse, as well as transcendental for many disciplines, so much that today they continue to be significant, such as their Philosophical Essays , Which contemplate the analysis of four sections.

In these sections you can study his dissertations around geometry, optics, geometry, meteors, and finally - in addition to his greatest contribution - the Method Discourse.

His writings contemplate more inquiries, also of great magnitude, such as his well-known Metaphysical Meditations.

10 contributions of Descartes in the philosophical and scientific field for modernity

1- Changed the way of conceiving and treating the philosophical study

Prior to his proposal, the lectures on philosophy were based on the Scholastic method .

This methodology consisted only in comparing the arguments presented by recognized philosophers, or considered as an authority, without considering any scientific basis.

10 René Descartes's Contributions to Philosophy and Humanity

However, from the conception that this thinker shows, he established the means to take a different path: that of methodical doubt.

This is based on leaving a question that does not remain in skepticism - or tendency according to which no belief is reached - but simply works to put everything in doubt and arrive, through a method to truths. From there, his important sentence: I think, therefore I am.

2- The res cogitans and the extensive res

Descartes considered that there were two substances in humans: a thinker who called Res cogitans , And another one belonging to the realm of the physical, quoted as Extensive .

Although this could not be fully demonstrated today as a universal truth, it undoubtedly paved the way for one of the greatest debates in modernity - philosophical as well as scientific - on the body, The existence of the mistress and the relationship, or communication, between these two elements.

3. Precursor of rationalism

He placed thought in a prominent place, as proof of the existence of both humans and reality.

This current that originated this thinker is called rationalism, and this arises after doubting everything around him to conclude that the clearest proof, even of its existence, was his ability to think.

4- Contributed to physical theories

He tried to explain different phenomena on the plane of physics, even coming close to the idea of Copernicus - in regard to the heliocentric system -, although it later dismissed these approaches, mainly because they are considered by the Catholic Church as heresy.

Similarly, although many of his explanatory attempts were not the most accurate, he was paving the way for what would later become one of his most important contributions: scientific method .

5- The scientific method

10 Rene Descartes contributions to Philosophy and Humanity 1

The elaboration of a scientific method helped to free the sciences from speculations and vague dissertations and that this was consolidated as such.

The objective was that, through the monitoring of some necessary steps that contemplated the verification and verification of the data of the reality, it was reached the certainty.

This arises from the belief of Descartes to consider that the senses could deceive the human about its surroundings, and for that reason it was necessary to submit all the necessary aspects through a method that leads to the truth.

6- Father of geometry

Another of its great contributions was in the field of mathematics, given its investigations on geometry, since it contributed to that the analytical geometry was systematized.

7- Creator of the exponent method

One of its great achievements, and that persist in the present, is the use that is made to signal the powers.

This achievement is also due to Descartes, while he created the method of exponents.

8- Development of the Cartesian Law

Thanks to their contributions, it is possible to have today the so-called Cartesian Law of Signs, which allows to decipher the roots, both negative and positive, within the algebraic equations.

9- Introduction of letters in mathematics

Given their researches, it is also possible to make use of the first letters of the alphabet in the field of mathematics - when the quantities are known (a, b, c, d) - and the last ones (u, v, W, x, y, z), when these are not known.

10- Theory of equations

Descartes contributed to develop what is now known as the theory of equations. This was based on the use of the signs that he himself created to determine the nature of the roots of the given equation.

References

  • Descartes, R. (2007). The discourse of the method. Editorial Maxtor. Valladolid. Spain.
  • Morillo, D. (2001). Rene Descartes. Editorial Edaf. Buenos Aires. Argentina.
  • Scott, J. (2016). The scientific work of René Descartes. Rowtledge Library Editions: René Descartes.
  • Ziccardi, J. (2012). Fundamental Descartes: A Practical Guide to the Method and Meditations. Copyright James Ziccardi.
  • Slowik, E. (2002). Cartesian Spacetime. Descartes' Physics and the Relational Theory of Space and Motion. Winona State University. Winona. USES.


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