1596–1650
René Descartes
Descartes, born in Touraine and dying in Stockholm, published the Discourse on the Method in 1637 and the Meditations in 1641. He uses doubt as a tool, not as a resting place, and argues that the mind is really distinct from body. That distinction is not the same as the idealism pole of this site: Descartes is a dualist about created substance, not a Berkeleyan idealist. His views on freedom are debated and are not scored here as a settled libertarianism.
Also in the atlas
- Methodical doubt
- Mind and body
- Clear and distinct ideas
Reading, not a syllabus ranking
- Discourse on the Method (1637) — A vernacular account of method and of a life ordered by inquiry.
- Meditations on First Philosophy (1641) — Doubt, the cogito, God, and the real distinction of mind and body.
Questions for reflection
- What, if anything, survives a doubt that is trying to be as general as possible?
- Does a clear conception of mind show that mind is not physical?
Use Descartes for the rationalist pole, and do not collapse his dualism into idealism or into a score for free will.