"I gave up completely the study of the humanities and not to search for any other science apart from what could be found in myself or the great book of the world," he wrote in Part 1 of the Discourse on Method.ĭescartes also expressed his preference for mathematics as the basis and language of his new method, "because of the certainty and self-evidence of the way it reasons." In one of the essays that was published with the Discourse, titled Geometry, Descartes introduced the Cartesian coordinate system, which influenced the development of calculus and is still widely used.ĭespite its fame and influence, the Discourse on Method was just a sketch of a larger argument. During a brief stint in the army, Descartes decided to devote his life to tearing down everything he had been taught was true and building it back up on a firm foundation, a project he said came to him in a dream. But at age 20, he quit law in order to travel. 1637: Descartes publishes his Discourse on the Method for Guiding One's Reason and Searching for Truth in the Sciences, the source of the famous quote, "I think, therefore I am." He outlines his rules for understanding the natural world through reason and skepticism, forming the foundation of the scientific method still in use today.īorn in France in 1596, Rene Descartes was raised with the standard Jesuit education of the day - Latin, Greek, mathematics, classical philosophy - and even studied to be a lawyer like his father.
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