![]() ![]() He composed all of his major works in the last 20 years of his life, writing in Latin (for fellow scholars) as well as, unusually, in French (for the general public). ![]() ![]() Descartes had a relationship with a servant that resulted in a daughter, but she died at a young age, which devastated him. He studied in a number of Dutch cities, including Franeker, Leiden, Amsterdam, and Deventer, and he moved nearly every year for the rest of his life. In 1628, he abruptly moved to the Netherlands, a Protestant region where the Catholic Church’s Inquisition could not prosecute him for challenging religious doctrine. From 1620 to 1628, Descartes traveled around Europe, studied philosophy and geometry, and befriended a number of prominent intellectuals in Paris. This episode also directly inspired his Meditations. One night in November 1619, during his military service, he fell asleep by a stove, had a series of vivid dreams, and decided to dedicate the rest of his life to science. He was born to a prominent Catholic family in the Touraine Province of Western France and received a comprehensive Jesuit education, finished a degree in law, and briefly joined the Dutch army. ![]() René Descartes (pronounced day-cart) is generally considered the most significant French philosopher of the 1600s and the father of modern philosophy, above all because of the method he develops in Meditations. ![]()
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