
René Descartes, also known as Renatus Cartesius (Latinized form), was a highly influential French philosopher, mathematician, scientist, and writer. He has been dubbed the "Father of Modern Philosophy," and much of subsequent Western philosophy is a response to his writings, which continue to be studied closely. His influence in mathematics is also apparent, the Cartesian coordinate system that is used in plane geometry and algebra being named for him, and he was one of the key figures in the Scientific Revolution. Descartes frequently sets his views apart from those of his predecessors. In the opening section of the Passions of the Soul, a treatise on the Early Modern version of what are now commonly called emotions, he goes so far as to assert that he will write on his topic "as if no one had written on these matters before". Many elements of his philosophy have precedents in late Aristotelianism, the revived Stoicism of the 16th century, or in earlier philosophers like St. Augustine. In his natural philosophy, he differs from the Schools on two major points: First, he rejects the analysis of corporeal substance into matter and form; second, he rejects any appeal to ends—divine or natural—in explaining natural phenomena. In his theology, he insists on the absolute freedom of God’s act of creation. Descartes was a major figure in 17th century continental rationalism, later advocated by Baruch Spinoza and Gottfried Leibniz, and opposed by the empiricist school of thought consisting of Hobbes, Locke, Berkeley, and Hume. Leibniz, Spinoza and Descartes were all versed in mathematics as well as philosophy, and Descartes and Leibniz contributed greatly to science as well. As the inventor of the Cartesian coordinate system, Descartes founded analytic geometry, the bridge between algebra and geometry, crucial to the invention of calculus and analysis. Descartes' reflections on mind and mechanism began the strain of Western thought that much later, impelled by the invention of the electronic computer and by the possibility of machine intelligence, blossomed into the Turing test and related thought. His most famous statement is: Cogito ergo sum (French: Je pense, donc je suis; English: I think, therefore I am), found in §7 of part I of Principles of Philosophy (Latin) and in part IV of Discourse on the Method (French).
Books

Meditations on First Philosophy
With Selections from the Objections and Replies
1641

Meditations on First Philosophy
1641

The Philosophical Writings of Descartes
Volume 1
1911

The Philosophical Works of Descartes, Volume 2
1934

Descartes
An Introduction
2009

The Philosophical Writings of Descartes
The Correspondence
1958

The Works of Rene Descartes
1950

The Essential Descartes
1969

Treatise of Man
1972

Discourse on Method, Meditations of First Philosophy & Principles of Philosophy
2012

Rules for the Direction of the Mind
1619

Discourse on Method
1637

Descartes
Selected Philosophical Writings
1927

The Works of Rene Descartes
Discourse On Method, The Meditations, On The First Philosophy, The Principles of Philosophy
2011

O Discurso do Método / As Paixões da Alma
1637

The Philosophical Writings of Descartes
Volume 2
1641

Philosophical Writings
1969

Principles of Philosophy
1644

The Passions of the Soul
1649

Meditations and Other Metaphysical Writings
1641

The Meditations and Selections from the Principles
1968

The Geometry of René Descartes
1637

Discourse on Method and Meditations on First Philosophy
1637

Philosophical Essays
1964

The Selections from the Principles of Philosophy
1647

The Complete Harvard Classics 2021 Edition - ALL 71 Volumes
The Five Foot Shelf & The Shelf of Fiction
1722

Discurso del método. Meditaciones metafísicas. Reglas para la dirección del espíritu. Principios de la filosofía.
2001

The Passions of the Soul and Other Late Philosophical Writings
2016

La recherche de la Vérité par la lumièe naturelle - Traduction, introduction et notes par Emmanuel Faye
1701

Philosophical Essays and Correspondence (Descartes)
2000

The Correspondence of Descartes and Elizabeth
1989

Discourse on Method and Related Writings
1637

Discourse on Method, Optics, Geometry, and Meteorology
1637