Sixth Grade
Worksheets
Rene Descartes
He has been called the "father of modern science" and the "first modern philosopher." Who was he? And how did he become interested in such widely different subjects as philosophy and science?
His name was Rene Descartes, and in his time, science and philosophy were not so far apart as they seem today. Descartes was a philosopher - he dealt in ideas. He is famous for the ideas he expressed through his writings.
The ideas that he wrote about, however, often involved science. Like other Renaissance thinkers, Descartes was interested in a new way of learning. He wanted people to learn information that was factually true, not just ideas written down by other thinkers of long ago. Like the famous scientist Galileo, he was interested in gaining information through observation and experimentation. Descartes believed that the best way to the truth was through mathematics. To him, math was something that you could always count on to produce the truth.
