The essay discusses the 17th century French philosopher René Descartes and his seminal work establishing the foundations of modern Western philosophy. Descartes was born in 1596 in France and received an education consisting of law, medicine, mathematics, and liberal arts. He dedicated his life to developing a new philosophical system that established certainty and logic as the foundations for scientific knowledge.
Descartes is best known for his philosophical proposition "I think, therefore I am," which established clear and distinct perceptions as the primary source of undoubtable truths. Through systematic doubt and rational deduction, Descartes arrived at his famous philosophical dualism between mind and matter.