رينيه ديكارت (31 مارس 1596 – 11 فبراير 1650)،
- فيلسوف،
- ورياضي،
- وفيزيائي فرنسي،
- يلقب بـ"أبو الفلسفة الحديثة"،
- وكثير من الأطروحات الفلسفية الغربية التي جاءت بعده، هي انعكاسات لأطروحاته،
- والتي ما زالت تدرس حتى اليوم،
- خصوصا كتاب (تأملات في الفلسفة الأولى-1641 م) الذي ما زال يشكل النص القياسي لمعظم كليات الفلسفة. - كما أن لديكارت تأثير واضح في علم الرياضيات،
- فقد اخترع نظاما رياضيا سمي باسمه وهو (نظام الإحداثيات الديكارتية)، الذي شكل النواة الأولى لـ(الهندسة التحليلية)،
- فكان بذلك من الشخصيات الرئيسية في تاريخ الثورة العلمية.
- وديكارت هو الشخصية الرئيسية لمذهب العقلانية في القرن17 م،
- كما كان ضليعا في علم الرياضيات، فضلا عن الفلسفة، وأسهم إسهاما كبيرا في هذه العلوم،
- وديكارت هو صاحب المقولة الشهيرة:"أنا أفكر، إذن أنا موجود'

René Descartes (French:*[ʁəne dekaʁt]; Latinized: Renatus Cartesius; adjectival form: "Cartesian";[5] 31 March 1596*– 11 February 1650) was a French philosopher, mathematician, and writer who spent most of his life in the Dutch Republic. He has been dubbed The Father of Modern Philosophy, and much subsequent Western philosophy is a response to his writings,[6][7] which are studied closely to this day. In particular, his Meditations on First Philosophy continues to be a standard text at most university philosophy departments. Descartes' influence in mathematics is equally apparent; the Cartesian coordinate system — allowing reference to a point in space as a set of nuجmbers, and allowing algebraic equations to be expressed as geometric shapes in a two-dimensional coordinate system (and conversely, shapes to be described as equations) — was named after him. He is credited as the father of analytical geometry, the bridge between algebra and geometry, crucial to the discovery of infinitesimal calculus and analysis. Descartes was also one of the key figures in the scientific revolution and has been described as an example of genius. He refused to accept the authority of previous philosophers and also refused to accept the obviousness of his own senses.
Descartes frequently sets his views apart from those of his predecessors. In the opening section of the Passions of the Soul, a treatise on the early modern version of what are now commonly called emotions, Descartes goes so far as to assert that he will write on this topic "as if no one had written on these matters before". Many elements of his philosophy have precedents in late Aristotelianism, the revived Stoicism of the 16th century, or in earlier philosophers like Augustine. In his natural philosophy, he differs from the schools on two major points: First, he rejects the splitting of corporeal substance into matter and form; second, he rejects any appeal to final ends—divine or natural—in explaining natural phenomena.[8] In his theology, he insists on the absolute freedom of God's act of creation.
Descartes laid the foundation for 17th-century continental rationalism, later advocated by Baruch Spinoza and Gottfried Leibniz, and opposed by the empiricist school of thought consisting of Hobbes, Locke, Berkeley, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and Hume. Leibniz, Spinoza and Descartes were all well versed in mathematics as well as philosophy, and Descartes and Leibniz contributed greatly to science as well.
He is perhaps best known for the philosophical statement "Cogito ergo sum" (French: Je pense, donc je suis; I think, therefore I am), found in part IV of Discourse on the Method (1637 – written in French but with inclusion of "Cogito ergo sum") and §7 of part I of Principles of Philosophy (1644 – written in Latin).

1 Early lif

Graduation registry for Descartes at the Collège Royal Henry-Le-Grand, La Flèche, 1616
Descartes was born in La Haye en Touraine (now Descartes), Indre-et-Loire, France. When he was one year old, his mother Jeanne Brochard died. His father Joachim was a member of the Parlement of Brittany at Rennes.[9] In 1606 or 1607 he entered the Jesuit Collège Royal Henry-Le-Grand at La Flèche[10] where he was introduced to mathematics and physics, including Galileo's work.[11] After graduation in December 1616, he studied at the University of Poitiers, earning a Baccalauréat and Licence in law, in accordance with his father's wishes that he should become a lawyer.[12]
In his book, Discourse On The Method, he says "I entirely abandoned the study of letters. Resolving to seek no knowledge other than that of which could be found in myself or else in the great book of the world, I spent the rest of my youth traveling, visiting courts and armies, mixing with people of diverse temperaments and ranks, gathering various experiences, testing myself in the situations which fortune offered me, and at all times reflecting upon whatever came my way so as to derive some profit from it."
Given his ambition to become a professional military officer, Descartes joined the Army of Breda under the command of Maurice of Nassau in the Dutch Republic, and undertook a formal study of military engineering, as established by Simon Stevin. Descartes therefore received much encouragement in Breda to advance his knowledge of mathematics.[13] In this way he became acquainted with Isaac Beeckman, principal of Dordrecht school. Beeckman had proposed a difficult mathematical problem, and to his astonishment, it was the young Descartes who found the solution. Both believed that it was necessary to create a method that thoroughly linked mathematics and physics.[14] While in the service of the Duke Maximilian of Bavaria, Descartes was present at the Battle of the White Mountain outside Prague, in November 1620.[15]