Transcript for the Piece Audio version of René Descartes (1596-1650)

The “father of modern philosophy,” René Descartes was invited by the Queen of Sweden, in 1649, to become her tutor. What she neglected to mention was that she wanted her daily lessons at 5 in the morning, in winter. Descartes promptly caught pneumonia -- and died.

But before he did, he managed to refute a certain medieval view of the physical world, and replace it with one on which the only properties matter has are size, shape, and motion. This may not sound controversial, but in fact it was -- because the medieval view of the world was also the Christian view, so rejecting it seemed like rejecting Christianity -- risky business in 17th-century Europe.

Of course he knew better than to directly attack that view. So instead he simply ignored it! In his famous Meditations, he observes that the first thing I can know with certainty is that I exist -- for I cannot be deceived about it: if I think I exist, then I must exist, because to deceive me would require that I exist, to be deceived! So as long as I think I exist, I do -- and thus his famous “I think, therefore I am.” Once he has established this, he shows how we can also know that matter has the properties of size, shape and motion -- while conveniently leaving out everything believed in by the medievals!

The Church authorities were neither fooled nor pleased. But it didn’t really matter -- for modern philosophy had been born, and there was no turning back.