Today is famous French philosopher René Descartes` birthday.

Most famous for his creation of Cartesian geometry, René Descartes (March 31, 1596 - February 11, 1650) was a philosopher, mathematician, and a scientist. He is regarded as one of the world’s premier thinkers to set the standard for modern scientific reasoning. Using the world as his book at a young age, he decided to learn about the world through his travels and interactions with his fellow man. His writings would later get him into trouble from religious and political bodies, but his legacy lives on in many academic fields today.

Born to a well-connected family in France, his mother died when he was young and his father was a judge in the High Court. He received a solid education at a Jesuit College, then studied at the University of Poitiers, where he earned a degree in law, but never went on to become a lawyer. Instead, he wanted to explore the world, travel, and seek a truth that academia could not provide. An autobiography of René Descartes and his travels was later published and called “…Seeking the Truth in the Sciences”.

After his “studies” abroad, Descartes returned to Paris and then frequented other regions of Western Europe, but not before selling all his land and investing the money that would give him enough to live on for the rest of his life. His work in the natural sciences was just beginning and appeared in his work the Meditations on FirstPhilosophy, which helped set a precedent for scientific reasoning.

Although René Descartes is famous for his theories on existing, namely as reflected in the famous phrase, “I think, therefore I am”, which displays his conclusions that humans are different than animals only in regard to rational thought. However, this rationale can be overthrown in moments of emotion – such as seen in passion, vengeance, or even fondness for another.

René Descartes continued publishing books and papers about his theories in Europe. His work became known as Cartesian philosophy and was banned throughout Europe. After receiving a stipend from the King of France to continue his writings, Descartes came up with Cartesian geometry, or plane geometry, that can be coordinated on a two dimensional plane – namely on graph paper. Descartes died in 1650 in Sweden from what history records officially as pneumonia, but what some scholars believe was arsenic poisoning.