373René Descartes was born into the family of a minor noble in the town of La
Haye in Touraine, France. At age 10, René began a nine-year course of studies at
the Royal Jesuit College of La Flèche. There he studied the humanities, theology,
and philosophy (which included morals, logic, mathematics, metaphysics, and
science). Though he did well in school, he was disillusioned by the uncertainty of
his studies and their contradictory conclusions. Like many modern students, he
felt overwhelmed by the multitude of opinions he encountered. He later wrote in
his Discourse on Methodthat upon completing his course of study, “I found
myself embarrassed with so many doubts and errors that it seemed to me that the
effort to instruct myself had no effect other than the increasing discovery of my
own ignorance.”
However, there was one discipline in which he found the certainty he was
seeking: mathematics. The truths of mathematics were assured regardless of one’s
metaphysical or epistemological assumptions: 2 2 4 whether one is a
Platonist or an Aristotelian; 3 3 9 whether one is a Roman Catholic or a
Protestant. Given mathematical certainty, Descartes found it odd that on such
a firm basis “no loftier edifice had been reared.”
Left a modest inheritance by his father, Descartes spent the rest of his life
seeking the certainty not found in college. After receiving a law degree at Poitiers
in 1616, he served as a gentleman volunteer in the army of Maurice of Nassau.
While soldiering, he began to develop the idea of connecting mathematical cer-
tainty with philosophy. In 1619, he had a series of dreams convincing him that the
“spirit of truth” was leading him and that he had divine approval for his studies.
For the next ten years, while traveling and serving in the army, he developed his
ideas. In 1628, he had a debate with Chandoux, a scientist who claimed that sci-
ence could be founded only on probability. Descartes argued eloquently thatRENÉ DESCARTES
1596–1650