Frenchman Descartes turned philosophy on its head and started again. First, he had to find out what he knew for certain. He did this by doubting everything. Could he believe what he saw with his eyes, when big things looked small in the distance?
How did he really know what existed?
Maybe he was dreaming. Having to doubt his own existence almost drove Descartes mad. Luckily, he came up with the answer:
"I think,
therefore I am"
Awake or dreaming, Descartes was in no doubt at all that he was thinking. And if he could think, then he must exist. He decided that reality is made up of two separate things - mind and body.
Descartes spent the rest of his life trying to figure out how minds and bodies work together. He was a scientist at heart, but at the time the Church was persecuting Galileo and others scientists for their scientific theories. So Descartes moved to Holland, where they were more relaxed about new ideas. Here, there was great interest in mechanical objects like clocks. Descartes came to the conclusion that the body is like a machine.
But he found it tricky explaining how the mind is able to connect to the body.
After much head - scratching, he finally announced that the meeting - point is a small gland in the brain.
The queen of Sweden was very interested in his theories and invited him to go there to teach her. But Sweden's icy climate and the fact that the queen could only see him for early morning lessons did not agree with Descartes, whose pet hates were cold weather and getting up early. The combination of these two things had a bad effect on his health. A cold turned to pneumonia, and he died.
"All animals are mindless robots.."
"I trust maths, because asleep or awake two plus three always equals five"
"I observe that wax, when it melts, changes in every way.. BUT my mind tells me it's still wax".
He liked to sleep till midday.
"The world might be the creation of an evil genius"
