Rene Descartes (1596–1650) is the author of perhaps the most famous philosophical quote of all, cogito ergo sum, usually rendered as I think, therefore I am. There is however more to this quote, and ...

In 1644, the French philosopher, scientist, and mathematician René Descartes formulated several “laws of nature,” which helped lay the groundwork for classical physics and the Scientific Revolution.

Alright, let’s see a show of hands — don’t worry, we can’t tell. How many of you have taken a course in analytical geometry in high school or college? I thought so, very few have taken such a course.

A familiar fable about René Descartes, writes Matthew L. Jones, an assistant professor of history at Columbia University, has it that, around 1640, the philosopher revolutionized the concept of ...

In the Louvre hangs a portrait of a dark-haired, middle-aged man wearing a black coat. The label identifies the figure as the 17th-century philosopher René Descartes. It’s a “copy of a Hals” ...

Quote of the day by René Descartes: René Descartes, a foundational philosopher, championed doubt as essential for genuine understanding. His ideas encourage questioning assumptions and beliefs, ...

It was the Great Train Robbery of French intellectual life: thousands of treasured documents that vanished from the Institut de France in the mid-1800s, stolen by an Italian mathematician. Among them ...

HAVERFORD, Pa.HAVERFORD, Pa. — The valuable 17th-century letter was hiding in plain sight, available to almost anyone who checked the “D” drawer of the library card catalog at Haverford College.