The French philosopher, mathematician and physicist René Descartes was one of the great characters in the history of mankind. One that managed to go beyond the limits established then for each of these disciplines, leaving a legacy that is present today in all kinds of events. Descartes’s contributions are recognized in fields as varied as those of modern philosophy and geometry. analytical, so it is usually located on the same level as other prominent intellectuals of all time, such as Aristotle or Saint Augustine. Let’s see, then, some of those contributions and why they are still valid: Natural Philosophy Descartes is foundational for modern philosophy , by laying down many of the bases and assumptions on which it is developed. Among them, those who speak about the absolute freedom of the act of creation. Their conception of a dualism, a division between the soul and the body, broke with the Aristotelian beliefs that dominated Western societies for centuries. Descartes proposes to his equals to raise goals close to reality that could truly be resolved, in contrast to previous aspirations, perhaps too demanding, believes that man must adapt to the conditions provided by the environment, as a first step to generate minimum living conditions and research on that “I think, therefore I am” This phrase that he included in the Discourse on Method (1637) and in Principles of Philosophy (1644), is probably the first thing that comes to mind when we think of Descartes. They cite in their writings and arguments to justify measures and decisions.The Cartesian Law Descartes contributed to the development of the law that reveals the positive and negative roots in algebraic equations, or “Cartesian law of signs.” Father of analytic geometry He is also mentioned as the father of analytical geometry, the discipline that projected a definitive meeting point between algebra and geometry. Innate ideas and doubts Like the psychologists of the time, Descartes begins to wonder about human behavior, reaching the conclusion that many of our behaviors are “predetermined”: they are defined from the experiences we have throughout our existence. Likewise, he doubts about the path to discovering things, he argues that we must distrust our senses, which are also active while we remain in dreams.
