Descartes, René

René Descartes ( day-KART, also DAY-kart; French: [ʁəne dekaʁt] ; 31 March 1596 – 11 February 1650) was a French philosopher, scientist, logician, and mathematician, widely considered a seminal figure in the emergence of modern philosophy and science during the Renaissance era. Mathematics was paramount to his method of inquiry, and he connected the previously separate fields of geometry and algebra into analytic geometry. Refusing to accept the authority of previous philosophers, Descartes fr…