In existographies, Rene Descartes (1596-1650) (IQ:195|#13) (Cattell 1000:23) [RGM:33|1,500+] (Murray 4000:6|CS / 7|M / 4|WP) (Gottlieb 1000:25) (GPE:13) (GME:6) (Library:2,000) (GPhE:3) [CR:441] was a French physicist, philosopher, and mathematician, aka the “restorer of modern philosophy” (Holbach, 1770), noted for his 1637 Discourse on Method, which introduced a number of topics, such as the Cartesian coordinate system, automaton theory, vis viva discussions, and the proof that one exists, embodied in the famous saying “I think, therefore I am”.“It is obvious that when god first created the world, he not only moved its parts in various ways, but also simultaneously caused some of the parts to push others and to transfer their motion to these others. So, in now maintaining the world by the same action and with the same laws with which he created it, he conserves motion; not always contained in the same parts of matter, but transferred from some parts to others depending on the ways in which they come in contact.”— Rene Descartes (1644), Principles of Philosophy (pg. 62) [22]
“Motion, indeed, is only a state of the moving body; but it has a certain definite ‘quantity’, and it is readily conceived that this quantity may be constant in the universe as a whole, while varying in any given part. We must reckon the ‘quantity of motion’ in two pieces of matter as equal if one moves twice as fast as the other, and this in turn is twice as big as the first; again, if the motion of one piece of matter is retarded, we must assume an equal acceleration of some other body of the same size.”
— Rene Descartes (1644), Principles of Philosophy (§:36) [23]
“Descartes tried to explain all physical phenomena in terms of ‘extension’ and ‘motion’ only. Like a Cheshire Cat vanishes leaving only the abstract grin, so in Descartes’ system specific substances and qualities vanish, leaving only a real world of extension and motion. A void or vacuum is impossible for Descartes as it would imply extension without body and for him extension is body. To account for the world as we know it Descartes requires three types of particles, which are distinguished from one another by their geometrical properties only—that is by ‘extension’. These are the small ‘fire particles’, some of them infinitely small, the intermediate ‘boules’ and the ‘gross material particles’, which in aggregate constitute all material bodies. The first two sorts of particles form the all-pervading aether which circulates in a gigantic but invisible whirlpool or vortex about that large hot body, the sun. It is the motion of this vortex that carries the planets round in their circular orbits, which has its own relatively small vortex, that accounts for the phenomenon we call ‘weight’.”— Donald Cardwell (1971), From Watt to Clausius (pgs. 2-3)
“Descartes’ mechanical thinking was heavily influenced by the automata at the Royal Gardens in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, a suburb of Paris. These hydraulically powered statues could perform all kinds of impressive tricks, and they served as the model that Descartes used to describe the functioning of the human body.”
“These functions [digestion, beating of heart, growth, respiration, waking, sleeping, etc.] follow in this [human] machine simply from the disposition of the organs as wholly naturally as the movements of a clock or other automaton follow from the disposition of its counterweights and wheels. As far as these functions are concerned, it is not necessary to conceive any other vegetative or sensitive soul, nor any other principle of motion or of life, than the blood and the spirits agitated by the fire which burns continually in the heart, and which is in no wise different from the fires which exist in inanimate bodies.”— Rene Descartes (1633), Treatise on Man [13][19]
“The body of a living man (see: alive; living matter) differs from that of a dead man (see: dead; dead matter) only as much as a watch or any other automaton when they are wound up differ from the same watch or automaton when they are broken.”
 |
| Descartes' 1644 effluvia models of the magnetism the earth (top) and a permanent magnet (bottom). [12] |
See main: Descartes on the soulDescartes was an early soul theorist, noted for his opinion that the soul is located in the pineal gland: [10]
“My view is that this gland is the principal seat of the soul, and the place in which all our thoughts are formed. The reason I believe this is that I cannot find any part of the brain, except this, which is not double. Since we see only one thing with two eyes, and hear only one voice with two ears, and in short have never more than one thought at a time, it must necessarily be the case that the impressions which enter by the two eyes or by the two ears, and so on, unite with each other in some part of the body before being considered by the soul. Now it is impossible to find any such place in the whole head except this gland; moreover it is situated in the most suitable possible place for this purpose, in the middle of all the concavities; and it is supported and surrounded by the little branches of the carotid arteries which bring the spirits into the brain.”
 |
| A depiction of Christina Alexandra, Queen of Sweden, left, being tutored by Rene Descartes, right, on his "mechanical philosophy"; views for which he was "put to death" (Holbach, 1770) for, i.e. poisoned as it has been surmised. |
“Descartes symptoms include: weakening, vomits, diarrhea, dizziness, skin's pigmentation, cutaneous damages, enteritis ... symptoms commonly found in an arsenic intoxication.”— Johann van Wullen (c.1650), “Letter to Willem Piso” [17]
“He expiated his rivals attacks with the innocency of his life.”— Hector Chanut (1650), words engraved on Descartes tombstone [17]
“Virgil, the bishop of Saltzburg, was condemned by the church, for having dared to maintain the existence of the antipodes. All the world is acquainted with the persecutions which Galileo suffered for pretending that the sun did not make its revolution round the earth. Descartes was put to death in a foreign land.”— Baron d’Holbach (1770), The System of Nature (pg. 284)
“This monograph discusses the illness and death of René Descartes. All the hitherto available documents on his illness and death are collected in the appendix, partly also in the original French or Latin. These documents make it rather unlikely that Descartes died of pneumonia, the circumstances of his death suggest a poisoning by arsenic. The possible murderer and his motives are also discussed.”
“The embarrassments which animals have thrown in the way of the partisans of the doctrine of spirituality is well known: they have been fearful, if they allowed them to have a spiritual soul of elevating them to the condition of human creatures; on the other hand, in not allowing them to have a soul, they have furnished their adversaries with authority to deny it in like manner to man, who thus finds himself debased to the condition of the animal. Theologians have never known how to extricate themselves from this difficulty. Descartes fancied he solved it by saying that beasts have no souls, are mere machines. Nothing can be nearer the surface than the absurdity of this principle. Whoever contemplates nature without prejudice, will readily acknowledge, that there is no other difference between the man and the beast than that which is to be attributed to the diversity of his organization.”— Baron d’Holbach (1770), The System of Nature (pgs. 81-82)
“It is, indeed, a very observable fact, that while Richelieu, with such extraordinary boldness, was secularizing the whole system of French politics, and by his disregard of ancient interests, was setting at naught the most ancient traditions, a course precisely similar was being pursued, in a still higher department, by a man greater than he; by one, who, if I may express my own opinion, is the most profound among the many eminent thinkers France has produced. I speak of Rene Descartes, of whom the least that can be said is, that he effected a revolution more decisive than has ever been brought about by any other single mind. He was the first who successfully applied algebra to geometry; that he pointed out the important law of the sines that in an age in which optical instruments were extremely imperfect, he discovered the changes to which light is subjected in the eye by the crystalline lens ; that he directed attention to the consequences resulting from the weight of the atmosphere, and that he, moreover, detected the causes of the rainbow, that singular phenomenon, with which, in the eyes of the vulgar, some theological superstitions are still connected. At the same time, and as if to combine the most varied forms of excellence, he is not only allowed to be the first geometrician of the age, but, by the clearness and admirable precision of his style, he became one of the founders of French prose. ”— Henry Buckle (1856), History of Civilization, Volume One (pg. 417)
“Mindful of Galileo's condemnation, Descartes, who had no taste for martyrdom, was always careful, in defending the Copernican system, to refer to it as a ‘fable’ or mere ‘hypothesis’, which, indeed, agreed with the known facts better than any other, but need not on that account be regarded as true; but no reader can have been in doubt either as to the logical outcome of the philosopher's arguments or as to his actual opinion.”— Arthur Lovejoy (1933), The Great Chain of Being (pg. 123)
“Most seventeenth-century scientists accepted Descartes ‘mechanical philosophy’, in which the universe was composed of matter and motion, and all natural philosophy could be explained by the collisions between particles.”— Stephen Inwood (2002), The Man Who Knew Too Much (pg. 15)
“Give me matter and motion, and out of them I will build the universe.”— Rene Descartes (c.1630), Publication (Ѻ); cited by Ludwig Buchner (1855) in Force and Matter (pg. 64)
“It is now some years since I detected how many were the false beliefs (see: unlearn) that I had from my earliest youth admitted as true and how doubtful was everything I had since constructed on this basis.”— Rene Descartes (1641), Mediations on the First Philosophy in Which the Existence of God and the Distinction Between Mind and Body are Demonstrated [14]
“I am a thing that thinks: that is to say, that doubts, affirms, denies, that wills, that desires, that also imagines and perceives.”— Rene Descartes (1641), Mediations on First Philosophy (Mediation Three) (Ѻ); note: Hobbes objected (Ѻ) to this [15]; cited by Henry Buckle (1856) in History of Civilization, Volume One (pg. 425)
“If you would be a real seeker of truth, you must at least once in your life doubt, as far as possible, all things.”— Rene Descartes (1644), Principles of Philosophy (Ѻ)(Ѻ)
