Descartes

American  

[dey-kahrt, dey-kart] / deɪˈkɑrt, deɪˈkart /

noun

1. René 1596–1650, French philosopher and mathematician.

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Descartes British  

/ ˈdeɪˌkɑːt, dekart /

noun

1. René (rəne). 1596–1650, French philosopher and mathematician. He provided a mechanistic basis for the philosophical theory of dualism and is regarded as the founder of modern philosophy. He also founded analytical geometry and contributed greatly to the science of optics. His works include Discours de la méthode (1637), Meditationes de Prima Philosophia (1641), and Principia Philosophiae (1644)

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Descartes Scientific  

/ dā-kärt′ /

1. French mathematician and philosopher who discovered that the position of a point can be determined by coordinates, a discovery that laid the foundation for analytic geometry.

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Example Sentences

Mr. Pollan blames Western science, and especially Galileo and Descartes, for dividing the mind from the body, and humans from everything else.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 15, 2026

In 1641, French philosopher René Descartes, writing his famous “Meditations on First Philosophy,” observed that a mind is fundamentally different from the body which contains it.

From Salon • Nov. 10, 2024

When the seventeenth-century French philosopher René Descartes was asked about infant consciousness by his critics, he eventually suggested that infants might have thoughts, albeit ones that are simpler than those of adults.

From Science Daily • Mar. 22, 2024

Dressed nearly always all in black, he once joked he was the "Descartes of anxiety; I panic, therefore I am."

From BBC • Feb. 28, 2024

The Discourse is a strange work because it is both autobiography and philosophy; Descartes teaches us how to think by telling us the steps he went through in learning how to think.

From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton