René Descartes (1596-1650)

Picture of Descartes

Outline of Today's Lecture

• Descartes's life

• Rationalism

• Freedom and the New Individual
  • The Cogito

• Clear and Distinct Ideas

• The Mechanistic World-View
  • Descartes's Theory of Motion

  • The Structure of the Universe: Vortices

• Proofs for God's Existence

• Discourse on the Method of Properly Conducting One's Reason and of Seeking the Truth in the Sciences (1637)

• Practical Reason and Progress

Names, Terms and Concepts

• Jesuit college at La Flèche

• Isaac Beeckman

• Corpuscles

• Copernicanism

Additional resources available on the Internet

• Biographical Information on Descartes

• Did you forget your book? Don't worry; here's the on-line Text of the Discourse on Method. (Note: This is a different translation from the one we are using in this class.)