Descartes

[dey-kahrt; French dey-kart]

noun

Re·né

[ruh-ney; French ruh-ney] /rəˈneɪ; French rəˈneɪ/, 1596–1650, French philosopher and mathematician.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for descartes

Contemporary Examples of descartes

She gives no nods to the Humanists, like Montaigne, Francis Bacon, Erasmus, or Descartes.
Sor Juana: Mexico’s Most Erotic Poet and Its Most Dangerous Nun
Katie Baker
November 8, 2014
Somewhere, Descartes must be mulling a new declaration for the modern era: I emit carbon dioxide, therefore I am.
Obama's Environmental Disaster
Robert Bryce
April 19, 2009

Historical Examples of descartes

Few people are of Descartes' mind, that squinting is pretty.
Tales And Novels, Volume 9 (of 10)
Maria Edgeworth
The foundation of the system of Descartes is belief in God and in the goodness of God.
Initiation into Philosophy
Emile Faguet
Descartes therefore made evidence the touchstone of certainty.
Initiation into Philosophy
Emile Faguet
From the time of Descartes to Hume and Kant it has had little or nothing to do with facts of science.
Meno
Plato
The system of Spinoza is less personal and also less dualistic than that of Descartes.
Meno
Plato

British Dictionary definitions for descartes

Descartes

noun

René (rəne). 1596–1650, French philosopher and mathematician. He provided a mechanistic basis for the philosophical theory of dualism and is regarded as the founder of modern philosophy. He also founded analytical geometry and contributed greatly to the science of optics. His works include Discours de la méthode (1637), Meditationes de Prima Philosophia (1641), and Principia Philosophiae (1644)

Related formsRelated adjective: Cartesian

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

descartes in Science

Descartes

[dā-kärt′]René 1596-1650

French mathematician and philosopher who discovered that the position of a point can be determined by coordinates, a discovery that laid the foundation for analytic geometry.