Meditations on First Philosophy

by Rene Descartes

Overview

'Meditations on First Philosophy' is a philosophical treatise written by René Descartes first published in Latin in 1641. The book is made up of six meditations, in which Descartes first discards all belief in things which are not absolutely certain, and then tries to establish what can be known for sure. The meditations were written as if he was meditating for 6 days: each meditation refers to the last one as "yesterday". However, Descartes did not take 6 days to complete this work; it actually took several years.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781515440536
Publisher:	Wilder Publications, Inc.
Publication date:	07/09/2018
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	64
Sales rank:	589,123
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

René Descartes (1596 - 1650)



René Descartes was a French philosopher, mathematician, and writer. He has been dubbed the 'Father of Modern Philosophy', and much subsequent Western philosophy is a response to his writings, which are studied closely to this day. Descartes' influence in mathematics is equally apparent; the Cartesian coordinate system --- allowing reference to a point in space as a set of numbers, 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.