René Descartes is most commonly known for his philosophical statement, “I think, therefore I am” (originally in French, but best known by its Latin translation: "Cogito, ergo sum”). He is also attributed with developing Cartesian dualism (also referred to as mind-body dualism), the metaphysical argument that the mind and body are two different substances which interact with one another. In the mathematics sphere, his primary contribution came from bridging the gap between algebra and geometry, which resulted in the Cartesian coordinate system still widely used today.
What is René Descartes known for?
What was René Descartes’s family like?
René Descartes was born in 1596 in La Hay en Touraine, France, to Joachim and Jeanne Descartes. Jeanne died shortly after Descartes turned one. Descartes was thought to have been fairly ill throughout his childhood. He and his siblings were raised by their grandmother, while Joachim was busy elsewhere with work and as a council member in the provincial parliament. Descartes never married, but he fathered a child in 1635 with Helena Jans van der Strom. The child, named Francine, died at age five of scarlet fever.
