René Descartes
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René Descartes was a French philosopher and mathematician, trained by the jesuits at Prytanée national militaire at La Flèche to be used in the Dutch Golden Age and Enlightenment trend with jesuits David Hume and Voltaire (start of Scientific Revolution and modern era, materialism of the Science Church). He published on the pineal gland (misconception of the pineal as the seat of the soul, also used in the New Age Church). In Discourse on Method he coined the phrase Cogito Ergo Sum ('I think, therefore I am'). |
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He studied military engineering in the Netherlands, ruled by the House of Orange.
He corresponded with Elizabeth Palatinate-Simmern Wittelsbach, the daughter of Frederick V Brunswick and Elizabeth Stuart, who also corresponded with Quaker William Penn, founder of Pennsylvania.
He met with cardinal Guidi di Bagno (nephew of Girolamo Colonna) and alchemist Nicolas Villiers (George Villiers was Cup-bearer of James I Stuart).
He was present at the Battle of the White Mountain (start of Thirty Years' War), in which Frederick V was defeated and at the siege of the Huguenots at La Rochelle by Cardinal Richelieu.
Other alumni of the Prytanée national militaire are Descartes' friend Marin Mersenne (rival of rosicrucian Robert Fludd), La Rochefoucauld (rival of Cardinal Richelieu), and jesuit missionaries sent to China.
In 1619 he moved to Ulm (Baden-Wurttemberg), center of rosicrucianism initials Renatus Cartus=R.C.).
In 1649 he moved to Sweden to work with the House of Vasa and Pierre Chanut (negotiator of Peace of Westphalia). Christina Vasa-Hohenzollern later lived at the Palazzo Farnese (family that founded the jesuits) and Palazzo Rospigliosi.
His theory on dualism of mind and body is known as Cartesian dualism.
He proposed the vortex theory in opposition with Isaac Newton's mechanical model.
While Descartes' method of doubting dogma's with the ratio as new foundation became influential in the Royal Society, alchemy became more mystical with Jakob Böhme and Thomas Vaughan.
Jesuit John Locke also played a role in the rationalist trend of the Enlightenment with more focus on empirical evidence.
born 3/31/1596.
died 2/11/1650.
Works
1618 Musicae Compendium
1630 De Solidorum Elementis copied by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
1630 The World
1637 Geometry
1637 Discourse on the Method
1641 Meditations on First Philosophy
1644 Principles of Philosophy (three laws of motion, inspiration for Isaac Newton's law of motion)
1648 The Descriptions of the Human Body
1649 Passions of the Soul, about the pineal gland, dedicated to Elizabeth Palatinate-Simmern Wittelsbach