Descartes: A Very Short Introduction

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Rene Descartes (1596-1650) had a remarkably short working life & his output was small yet his contributions to philosophy & science have endured to the present day He is perhaps best known for his statement ' Cogito ergo sum' By a mixture of 'intuition' & 'deduction' Descartes derived from the 'cogito' principle first the existence of a material world But Descartes did not intend the metaphysics to stand apart from his scientific work which included important investigations into physics mathematics psychology & optics In this book Tom Sorrell shows that Descartes was above all an advocate & practitioner of a new mathematical approach to physics & that he developed his metaphysics to support his programme in the sciences ABOUT THE SERIES The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly Our expert authors combine facts analysis perspective new ideas & enthusiasm to make interesting & challenging topics highly readable