Impact

What major impact did Descartes have on the Scientific Revolution?

-By acting in fear of the church his followers and colleagues would be moved to do the same, thus giving more power to the church over the scientific community

-Descartes introduced new ways of thinking in philosophy, science, and math that were inherited by others during and after the Scientific Revolution

-Established principles to be applied to the scientific method on how to approach science, thus in regions where his followers were most prevalent (Northern Europe), entire universities have used his ideology as the foundation of their learning

Summarized Philosophical Discoveries:

-Method of doubt

-Use of demolition and skepticism to grow and gain new information

-Divide everything into many parts to allow a strong solution

-Knowledge must be undoubtable to be true

Summarized Mathematical Discoveries:

-Built on math to gain a basis of philosophy

-First to understand that algebra could be used to solve geometry which allowed Newton and Leibniz to discover calculus

-Cartesian coordinates introduced exponents, polynomials, and expressing algebra through a graph

What was the lasting impact?

-Known as an influential figure in the Revolution for becoming one of the first major rationalists, and introducing the addition of math into philosophy and ideas for separating religion and science

-Without some of his mathematical breakthroughs, almost all modern math including calculus and geometry cannot be done

-Cartesian dualism made way for other thoughts on the mind-body problem