One of the Demon Rebels, the floating pot space, Descartes

René and Descartes (1596-1650), born in France (now Descartes, named after Descartes), died in Stockholm, Sweden.

Famous French philosopher, mathematician, and physicist.

He made important contributions to the development of modern mathematics and is considered the father of analytic geometry for formulating the geometric coordinate system.

He was also the founder of modern Western philosophical thought, a pioneer of modern materialism, and a "universal skepticism".

His philosophical ideas influenced generations of Europeans who followed, pioneering the philosophy of so-called "European rationalism".

Descartes was born in 1596 in Turai-Collahai (now Descartes), in the Indre-lois department of France.

He came from a low-ranking aristocratic family, and his father was a member of the Parliament of Brittany.

When he was more than 1 year old, his mother died of tuberculosis, and he was also infected, causing him to be frail and sick. After his mother's death, his father emigrated and remarried, leaving Descartes to his maternal grandmother, and since then father and son have rarely seen each other, but his father has always provided financial help so that he can receive a good education.

In 1606 or 1607, Descartes entered the Royal Henry College of the Jews at La Flèche. There, he studied mathematics and physics, including the work of Galileo.

After graduating in 1616, following his father's wish to become a lawyer, he entered the University of Poitiers to study law, where he obtained a bachelor's degree and diploma.

After graduating, Descartes was hesitant about choosing a career. He also decided to travel all over Europe and devote himself to seeking the wisdom of the "great book of the world."

In 1618, Descartes joined the army of Mauritz of Nassau in the Netherlands. However, an armistice had been signed between the Netherlands and Spain, so Descartes used this free time to study mathematics.

In Descartes' time, Latin was the language of scholars. He also signed his Latinized names (Renatus, Cattisius) to his writings, as was customary at the time.

Because of this, the Cartesian coordinate system pioneered by him is also called the Catitian coordinate system (now commonly known as the Cartesian coordinate system). However, Descartes wrote in French rather than Latin, which also meant that Latin was becoming an academic language in Europe at the time.

Descartes' interest in combining mathematics and physics was born during his time as a soldier in the Netherlands. Year 1618. He happened to be on a roadside bulletin board. See answers to mathematical problems in Flemish language. This intrigued him, and he asked the people around him to translate into Latin, which he did not understand.

The people next to him were Isaac and Beckman, who were eight years older than him. Beckman was highly accomplished in mathematics and physics, and soon became his spiritual mentor.

After 4 months. He wrote to Beckman: "You are the one who woke me up from apathy". And tell him. I made 4 major discoveries in mathematics.

In 1621 Descartes was discharged from the army.

In 1622, when he was 26 years old, Descartes sold his father's property. He spent 4 years in Europe, including 2 years in Italy, and then moved to Paris.

In 1628 he moved to the Netherlands, where he lived for more than 20 years. During this time, Descartes devoted himself to philosophical studies and gradually formed his own thoughts.

He wrote and published several important collections in the Netherlands, including Methodology, Metaphysical Meditations, and Principles of Philosophy.

In 1649, Descartes was invited to Stockholm by Queen Christina of Sweden, but unfortunately contracted pneumonia in this "land of bears, snow and rocks" and died in 1650.

In 1663 his writings were banned in Rome and Paris.

It was only in 1740 that the ban was lifted in Paris, in order to provide an alternative to the Newtonian system that was then in vogue in France.

Descartes' religious beliefs have been rigorously debated in academic circles. He claimed to be a devout Roman Catholic and that the purpose of "contemplation" was to preserve the Christian faith.

But in his own time, Descartes was accused of preaching secret deist and atheistic beliefs. His contemporaries, Blaise and Pascal, said, "I cannot forgive Descartes; But he could not do without a gentle touch from God in order to make the world move, and he would no longer need God. 」

In the biography of Descartes by Stephen and Gocroge, it is written, "He was deeply religious as a Catholic, and remained so until the day of his death, with a firm and passionate desire to search for the truth." 」

After Descartes' death in Sweden, Queen Christina renounced her throne and converted to Roman Catholicism (Swedish law requires rulers to be Protestant).

The only Catholic she kept in touch with was Descartes, who was her personal governess.

Descartes is widely regarded as the founder of modern Western philosophy, and he was the first to create a complete philosophical system.

Philosophically, Descartes was a dualist and a rationalist. Descartes believed that human beings should be able to use the mathematical method – that is, reason – to philosophize.

He believed that reason was more reliable than the senses. (He gave an example: when we dream, we think we are in a real world, but in fact it is just an illusion, like Zhuang Zhou's dream butterfly.)

He discovered 4 rules from logic, geometry, and algebra:

1. Never admit anything as true, and only what I don't doubt at all is regarded as truth;

2. Each problem must be divided into several simple parts to deal with;

3. Ideas must go from simple to complex;

4. We should always do a thorough inspection to make sure nothing is missed.

Descartes applied this method not only to philosophical reflection, but also to geometry, and founded analytic geometry.

Thus, Descartes' first step was to assume that skepticism was the starting point. Knowledge of sensory perception can be questioned, and we cannot trust our senses.

So he doesn't say, "I see, therefore I am," or "I listen, therefore I am." From this he realized a truth: what we cannot doubt is "our doubt".

Meaning: What we cannot doubt is the "doubt itself" when we are "doubting" the matter, and only then can we be sure that our "doubt" is real and not a false product.

He was puzzled by what people took for granted or taken for granted, and he developed his famous philosophical proposition, "I think, therefore I am" (Cogitoergosum).

Descartes takes this as the most basic starting point in metaphysics, from which he concludes that the "I" must be a thinking thing independent of the body.

Descartes also tried to prove the existence of God from this point of departure. Descartes believed that we all have a concept of a perfect entity. Because it is impossible for us to get a perfect concept from an imperfect entity. Therefore, there must be a perfect entity, God, to give us this concept.

From the two points obtained, Descartes went on to deduce that since there is a perfect thing (God), we can be sure that the previous hypothesis of the devil cannot be true, because a perfect thing cannot allow such a demon to deceive people. Therefore, by constantly doubting, we can be sure that "this world really exists." And the mathematical logic that has been proven should be correct.

There are many characteristics in the world of reality that can be perceived by reason. That is, their mathematical properties (e.g., length, width, height), when our intellect can clearly perceive a thing, then that thing must not be illusory. It must be as we know it.

Although Descartes proved the existence of the real world, he believed that there are two different entities in the universe, the mind (mind) and the outer world (matter), both of which come from God, and that God exists independently.

He believed that only man has a soul, and that man is a dualistic being who can both think and occupy space. Animals, on the other hand, belong only to the material realm.

Descartes' emphasis on the unquestionable point of departure of thought had an important influence on European philosophy since then. I think that the controversy I have generated is the so-called existence of God and the monism of animals (chimpanzees, octopuses, parrots, dolphins, elephants, etc., all prove intelligence), and the main idea of skepticism is indeed very useful for research.

Descartes' most important contribution to mathematics was the creation of analytic geometry. Descartes succeeded in linking algebra and geometry, which were completely separate at the time.

In his book Geometry, Descartes proved that geometric problems can be reduced to algebraic problems, and that geometric properties can be discovered and proved through algebraic transformations.

Descartes introduced the concept of coordinate systems and line segments. Descartes' achievements in mathematics provided a solid foundation for later generations of work in calculus, which in turn was an important cornerstone of modern mathematics.

He innovatively "translated" geometric figures into algebraic equations, so as to solve geometric problems algebraically, which is today's analytic geometry "or coordinate geometry".

In addition, many of the mathematical notations used today were first used by Descartes, including the known numbers a, b, and c, as well as the unknown numbers x, y, z, etc., as well as exponential representations.

He also discovered the relationship between convex polyhedral edges, vertices, and surfaces, which later became known as the Euler-Cartesian formula. He also discovered the Cartesian leaf line, which is common in calculus.

In physics, Descartes also made some achievements. He was the first to make a theoretical argument for the law of refraction of light in "Refractive Optics".

He also explained the causes of visual disorders in people and designed lenses to correct them. In mechanics, Descartes developed Galileo's theory of the relativity of motion, emphasizing the linearity of inertial motion.

Descartes discovered the original form of the principle of momentum conservation (Descartes' definition of momentum as an absolute value, not a vector, so his principle of momentum conservation was later proved wrong).

He also developed theories such as the theory of the evolution of the universe and the theory of vortex, and although the specific theories had many shortcomings, they still had an impact on later natural scientists.

He also explained the rainbow phenomenon by the law of refraction of light, and analyzed the color by the rotational speed of elemental particles.

In psychology, Descartes' views and major discoveries had a great influence on later psychology. He is a well-known representative of modern dualism and idealistic theory.

His major discoveries about reflection and reflex arcs provide an important basis for the assertion that animals are machines. and put forward the hypothesis of response-stimulus.

But Descartes' concept of reflex is mechanical, and he emphasizes the difference between man and animal, that animals do not have a mind, and that man has a mind, and this inference is typical of dualism.

In addition, psychosympathetic theory is another typical manifestation of Descartes's dualism in the relationship between body and mind, which holds that the human body is made up of material entities, and the human mind is made up of spiritual entities.

The mind and the human body can influence each other, cause and effect each other, and interact with each other. He believed that there are six primitive human emotions: surprise, love, hatred, desire, joy, and sorrow, and that the other emotions are branches or combinations of these six primitive emotions.

Although Descartes's dualistic psychological ideas are theoretically wrong, they are very promotable and progressive in the social context at that time, and he used dualism to get rid of the absolute control of theology over science and guide people's minds to rational thinking and specific research, so his contribution to psychology cannot be ignored.

Descartes is said to have traveled with a female robot named Francine. This fictional story probably originated from his comments about the mind, but it is also possible that the earliest robots were used.

Descartes is ranked 65th on Michael Hart's list of the 100 most influential people in history.

After Descartes' death, his tomb was excavated by tomb robbers, and his skull changed hands several times and is now in the Musée de l'Homme at the Palais de Chaillot in Paris, France.

Descartes vehemently denied his relationship with the German Rosicrucian Society, but there are many coincidences in the documents he left behind, which he does not admit may have been due to the Church at the time.

Descartes shared his early work on integrating geometry and algebra with Beckman, saying, "If you have the opportunity not to dislike my research or ideas, you can say that they are your ideas." 」

It's just his politeness and modesty, but Beckman really takes credit for it. This was so insulting to Descartes that he condemned Beckman for his "stupidity and ignorance" (to be continued......