Open main menu
Home
Random
Recent changes
Special pages
Community portal
Preferences
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Incubator escapee wiki
Search
User menu
Talk
Dark mode
Contributions
Create account
Log in
Editing
Space
(section)
Warning:
You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you
log in
or
create an account
, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.
Anti-spam check. Do
not
fill this in!
=== René Descartes === [[René Descartes|Descartes]] set out to replace the Aristotelian worldview with a theory about space and motion as determined by [[natural law]]s. In other words, he sought a [[Metaphysics|metaphysical]] foundation or a [[Mechanics|mechanical]] explanation for his theories about matter and motion. [[Cartesian space]] was [[Euclidean space|Euclidean]] in structure—infinite, uniform and flat.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Time and Space|last=Dainton|first=Barry|publisher=McGill-Queen's University Press|year=2014|pages=164}}</ref> It was defined as that which contained matter; conversely, matter by definition had a spatial extension so that there was no such thing as empty space.<ref name="Huggett-1999" /> The Cartesian notion of space is closely linked to his theories about the nature of the body, mind and matter. He is famously known for his "cogito ergo sum" (I think therefore I am), or the idea that we can only be certain of the fact that we can doubt, and therefore think and therefore exist. His theories belong to the [[Rationalism|rationalist]] tradition, which attributes knowledge about the world to our ability to think rather than to our experiences, as the [[Empiricism|empiricists]] believe.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Descartes: a very short introduction|last=Tom.|first=Sorell|date=2000|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-154036-3|location=Oxford|oclc=428970574}}</ref> He posited a clear distinction between the body and mind, which is referred to as the [[Mind–body dualism|Cartesian dualism]].
Edit summary
(Briefly describe your changes)
By publishing changes, you agree to the
Terms of Use
, and you irrevocably agree to release your contribution under the
CC BY-SA 4.0 License
and the
GFDL
. You agree that a hyperlink or URL is sufficient attribution under the Creative Commons license.
Cancel
Editing help
(opens in new window)