In 1644, the French philosopher, scientist, and mathematician René Descartes formulated several “laws of nature,” which helped lay the groundwork for classical physics and the Scientific Revolution.

Margaret C. Jacob is the author of numerous books, including "Scientific Culture and the Making of the Industrial West." She is a professor of history at UCLA and a member of the American ...

A familiar fable about René Descartes, writes Matthew L. Jones, an assistant professor of history at Columbia University, has it that, around 1640, the philosopher revolutionized the concept of ...

French philosopher René Descartes once wrote, “To doubt everything is the first step toward truth.” The statement, simple on the surface, sits at the heart of modern philosophy and scientific thinking ...

Alright, let’s see a show of hands — don’t worry, we can’t tell. How many of you have taken a course in analytical geometry in high school or college? I thought so, very few have taken such a course.

At the start of a course of lectures on Aristotle in the 1920s, Martin Heidegger made a terse remark about the relevance of biography to the philosopher’s task when considering the work of a ...