Early Modern Philosophy: Descartes and the Rationalists

Explore the intellectual climate of early modern philosophy in the 16th and 17th centuries. What makes it modern, and how does it connect to earlier philosophy?

René Descartes, a pioneer of modern philosophy, sought a foundation for absolutely certain knowledge. His ideas are explored in Meditations on First Philosophy.

Why was Descartes so obsessed with certainty? His intellectual autobiography, "The Discourse on the Method," reveals the revolutionary deductions he reached.

Descartes' Discourse outlines a provisional moral code, but his full ethical system is developed through his correspondence with Princess Elisabeth of Bohemia.

Lady Anne Conway, prompted by Descartes's works, set down her own ideas. Consider her critique, which responded to Descartes's philosophy and presented a unique perspective on the nature of reality.

Descartes argued that mind and body are two distinct substances. However, Baruch Spinoza proposed there is only one substance, which he identified as God or Nature.