![]() 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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