History 1401E Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Analytic Geometry, Empiricism
19 Mar 2018
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What: we should gain conclusions from going from concrete ideas to abstract. We can start with a hypothesis but it is more effective to start with observation of nature and build up a picture from facts and objects. Who: 18th century rationalist, father of modern algebra. Important: only believed in something if he was sure it was true (needed empirical knowledge), dissected dogs to learn about anatomy. Influenced the enlightenment which led to changed mindsets and the french revolution. Theories contributed to growing scientific belief that nature could be reduced to mathematical form. Descartes went on to prove that god existed from the proof that he himself existed. Descartes created a dualist view of the world (cartesian dualism) with a separation of the subjective the thinking function from the objective the material world in which we exist. He believed that everything could be explained through mathematics. On the basis of the methods laid out by bacon and descartes, others followed.
