René Descartes (1596-1650)

René Descartes (1596-1650)

French philosopher, mathematician, biologist and physicist.

René Descartes (1596-1650)

René Descartes, mainly known for his book Discourse on the Method, a philosophical treatise, influenced many scientific fields, despite the religious censorship of his time. In his publications, he replaced the syllogism inherited from the Aristotelian period, which had prevailed throughout the Middle Ages through mathematical methods. He proposed applying the certainty of mathematical reasoning to all knowledge, asserting that it should be possible to explain all phenomena using mathematical reasoning, that is, using figures and motion in accordance with “laws”. Hence the expression “to have a Cartesian mind”.

HISTORICAL NOTE

The concept of locating objects in a coordinate plane, (Cartesian coordinate plane) was proposed in Descartes’s work La Géométrie, published in 1637. His new notation to describe algebraic equations and operations initiated the development of modern mathematics.

Descartes was also the first to use exponents to indicate powers, such as 8$$b^{4}$$, in his book La Géométrie.