Reading all good books is like talking to the most outstanding people in the past few centuries. Descartes.
All good books read like talking to the most outstanding people in the past.
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Descartes is a dualist in philosophy and regards God as the creator. But Descartes was a mechanist in natural science, which was of progressive significance at that time.
Descartes was one of the founders of modern European philosophy, and Hegel called him "the father of modern philosophy". He formed his own system and combined materialism and idealism, which had a far-reaching influence in the history of philosophy.
Descartes' methodology has an important influence on the later development of physics. On the basis of ancient deductive method, he created mathematical deductive method: based on rationalism, starting from self-evident intuitive axioms, using mathematical logic to draw conclusions.
This method, combined with experimental induction advocated by Bacon, has become an important method in physics, especially theoretical physics, through the comprehensive application of Huygens and Newton. Descartes solved geometric problems with algebra and established the foundation of coordinate geometry, namely analytic geometry, which is one of the most successful examples of his universal method.
There are two other points worth noting in Descartes' methodology.
First, he is good at explaining physical phenomena with intuitive "models". For example, the tennis model is used to explain the refraction of light; Use "crutches for the blind" to vividly describe the instantaneous transmission of light information along matter; The rainbow phenomenon is simulated and successfully explained with a glass ball filled with water.
Secondly, he advocates the use of hypotheses and hypothetical methods, such as vortex theory in the theory of cosmic structure. In addition, he also put forward the principle of "universal suspicion". This principle played a great role in opposing church rule, advocating authority, advocating rationality and advocating science under the historical conditions at that time.
Descartes can be said to be one of the most influential masters of European philosophy and science in the17th century and beyond, and is known as "the ancestor of modern science".
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