Descartes’s revolutionary treatise on reason and scientific thought, which sparked radical breakthroughs in mathematics, philosophy, and metaphysics After he finished school, René Descartes was left with more doubts than certainties. His Jesuit education included some of the best teaching available in mathematics, physics, and letters, and yet Descartes found the foundations of his schooling hollow. Determined to discover for himself what was real, he spent the next nine years traveling through Europe, interacting with locals of all walks of life, including nobles, soldiers, and laborers, in search of the breadth of experience that would later inspire his greatest work: Discourse on Method. When it was first published, the book offered a remarkable new approach to gaining knowledge based on reason and skepticism, the steps for which Descartes lays out sequentially, from the deconstruction of all previously held beliefs to the slow and methodical rebuilding of fact anchored in the first and most innate truth: I think, therefore I am. This ebook has been professionally proofread to ensure accuracy and readability on all devices.

Often called " The founder of modern philosophy" and the "father of modern mathematics," René Descartes is considered one of the most important and influential thinkers in the history of Western thought, having inspired contemporaries and several generations of later philosophers. Experts affirm that, starting from Descartes, the rationalism of the Modern Age was inaugurated. In this valuable eBook, the reader will be able to learn about Descartes' thought through two of his most important works: " Discourse on the Method" and " Meditations on First Philosophy."

These provocative essays take a modern look at the 17th-century thinker's dream, examining the influences of mathematics on society, particularly in light of technological advances. They survey the conditions that elicit the application of mathematic principles; the applications' effectiveness; and how applied mathematics transform perceptions of reality. 1987 edition.

Excerpt from Descartes and His School: Translated From the Third and Revised German Edition Among the many histories of philosophy for which we are indebted to modern research, the history of Modern Philosophy by Professor Kuno Fischer of Heidelberg is conspicuous for the courage with which the author grapples with the difficulties of his task and the success with which he overcomes them. Though he is by no mean removed from criticism or controversy in respect to the interpretation which he gives of the writers and schools which he encounters, and in the positive and pronounced estimates and criticisms which he does not hesitate to give of their leading positions, he is uniformly clear, spirited, and exhaustive. He is also popular in the best sense of the term, being neither technical nor abstract beyond the necessities imposed by his theme, and connecting with the thorough and masterly discussion of schools and opinions as much of personal and general historic interest as could be expected or desired. For these reasons his history is, perhaps, more readable than any other, and is uniformly confessed by competent critics, whether friendly or otherwise, to be eminently attractive and exciting to the general student. Hitherto only a small portion of this history has been translated into English, - for one reason among others, that the history itself is not yet complete, having as yet been finished to the end of Schelling's system and life, where it rests for obvious reasons with the author's unsatisfied desire satisfactorily to expound the development of the Hegelian theory of Being and of Knowledge. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.