Character Manifesto

René Descartes was born in plains of La Haye en Touraine, France in March of 1596 to a family of wealth and comfort. Enrolled into college at the age of twelve, Descartes developed his passion for mathematics as he studied until 1618. Descartes then joined in the Dutch States Army in Breda under the study of military engineering, and in his time there he became acquainted with Isaac Beeckman, who helped him further his scientific knowledge. While under service, Descartes gained the experiences in science that he so desired and visited the laboratories of Tycho Brahe and Johannes Kepler. After leaving the army, Descartes moved back to the Dutch Republic in 1628, enrolling and moving to different colleges while studying mathematics. He began work on his book Treatise on the World in 1629, where he accepted Galileo’s view of a heliocentric universe. The book touched upon his theory that there could be no vacuum in space and that all matter was constantly swirling to prevent a void. When Galileo was condemned by the Catholic Church in 1633, Descartes abandoned his plans to publish his book in fear of his acceptance of the heliocentric theory. He would instead work on his three essays, The Meteors, Dioptrics, and Geometry, along with his introduction to these essays, Discourse on the Method, all published in 1637. His most famous work, Discourse on the Method, talked about skepticism and the notion of doubting, birthing the famous phrase “I think, therefore I am” (Descartes, Discourse on the Method). Descartes took reasoning and looked at it through a new way; he started by doubting everything, and when something that he initially doubted was decided to be irrefutable, it would then be proven as a fact. He was a big proponent of the development of empirical research, which led research away from theorizing and instead focused on the use of facts and observations to lead to a conclusion. As a supporter of empiricism, it was no surprise that Descartes agreed with Galileo’s ideas of a heliocentric universe, as Galileo used the empirical method to lead to his conclusion of this theory. When Galileo was tried by the Catholic Church in 1633, Descartes secretly supported Galileo and his work but was afraid of opposing the Church, evident by his reaction of refraining to publish his book that accepted heliocentricism. From birth, Descartes was raised a devout Catholic, and coming from a wealthy family in good standing with the Church, it only influenced him more to refrain from opposing them publicly in Galileo’s trial. He was also a member of the courts of many nobles in the Dutch Republic and northern Europe, many of which were supporters of the Church. Openly supporting Galileo and publishing his book in which he accepted heliocentrism would have derailed Descartes’s standing in Europe. Descartes’s book was finally published in 1677, twenty-seven years after his death, revealing his original acceptance of the heliocentric theory which he hid in fear of the Church.  

Sources: http://www.biography.com/people/ren-descartes-37613#later-life-death-and-legacy
http://galileo.rice.edu/Catalog/NewFiles/descarts.html
http://www.iep.utm.edu/descarte/