PHILOSOPHER

René Descartes

1596 - 1650

Photo of René Descartes

Icon of person René Descartes

René Descartes ( day-KART, also UK: DAY-kart; French: [ʁəne dekaʁt] ; 31 March 1596 – 11 February 1650): 58  was a French philosopher, scientist, and mathematician, widely considered a seminal figure in the emergence of modern philosophy and science. Mathematics was paramount to his method of inquiry, and he connected the previously separate fields of geometry and algebra into analytic geometry. Descartes spent much of his working life in the Dutch Republic, initially serving the Dutch States Army, and later becoming a central intellectual of the Dutch Golden Age. Although he served a Protestant state and was later counted as a deist by critics, Descartes was Roman Catholic. Read more on Wikipedia

His biography is available in different languages on Wikipedia. René Descartes is the 8th most popular philosopher (down from 7th in 2019), the 3rd most popular biography from France and the most popular French Philosopher.

René Descartes is most famous for his philosophical statement, "I think, therefore I am."

Memorability Metrics

Loading...

Page views of René Descartes by language

Loading...

Among PHILOSOPHERS

Among philosophers, René Descartes ranks 8 out of 1,267. Before him are Aristotle, Plato, Socrates, Confucius, Pythagoras, and Immanuel Kant. After him are Avicenna, Laozi, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Baruch Spinoza, Niccolò Machiavelli, and Augustine of Hippo.

Most Popular Philosophers in Wikipedia

Go to all Rankings
Load previousLoad previous

Contemporaries

Among people born in 1596, René Descartes ranks 1. After him are Elizabeth Stuart, Queen of Bohemia, Frederick V of the Palatinate, Michael of Russia, Pietro da Cortona, Jan van Goyen, Pieter Claesz, Emperor Go-Mizunoo, Nicola Amati, Baldassare Longhena, Peter Mogila, and Thomas Francis, Prince of Carignano. Among people deceased in 1650, René Descartes ranks 1. After him are William II, Prince of Orange, Dorgon, Christoph Scheiner, Tukaram, Matthäus Merian, Bernhardus Varenius, Hanzade Sultan, Cristóvão Ferreira, James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose, Charlotte Marguerite de Montmorency, and Catalina de Erauso.

Others Born in 1596

Go to all Rankings
Load previousLoad previous

Others Deceased in 1650

Go to all Rankings
Load previousLoad previous

In France

Among people born in France, René Descartes ranks 3 out of 6,770. Before him are Napoleon (1769), and Louis XIV of France (1638). After him are Blaise Pascal (1623), Joan of Arc (1412), Louis XVI of France (1754), Victor Hugo (1802), Voltaire (1694), Louis Pasteur (1822), Claude Monet (1840), Jules Verne (1828), and Molière (1622).

Others born in France

Go to all Rankings
Load previousLoad previous

Among PHILOSOPHERS In France

Among philosophers born in France, René Descartes ranks 1. After him are Montesquieu (1689), Auguste Comte (1798), Michel de Montaigne (1533), Michel Foucault (1926), Henri Bergson (1859), Peter Abelard (1079), Roland Barthes (1915), Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (1809), Jean Bodin (1530), Gilles Deleuze (1925), and Henri de Saint-Simon (1760).

French born Philosophers

Go to all Rankings
Load previousLoad previous