Why Is Rene Descartes Wrong

The medieval times was on its way to self-destruction when the rise of the Protestant rebellion and development of science came about. Along with Martin Luther and other revolutionaries, Rene Descartes challenge the church with his ideologies. Descartes legacy is the essential bias that allows the moral norms of the popular culture to continue. His pursuit to find certainty became the route of the modern rationalization of the people. At one point, society thought the earth was the center of the universe inclusive from the moon to species/planets located in space. Looking at it now, we have succumbed to think how society could then be so ill-informed. With advanced mathematics and trying to prove his theory right, Philosopher Rene Descartes changed yet another popular assumption and proved everyone wrong. His Method of Doubt simply answered any unknown inquisition that man on earth wanted to be informed on. This …show more content…
In “la Geometrie” he proposed that each point in a two dimensional figure could be described by points on a plane. One point gave horizontal location and the other gave vertical location, which are known as the Cartesian coordinates. Using axes crossing the origin, we are able to measure the x and y locations (dividing the plane in four quadrants). Descartes allowed math equations to be easily represented on the plane by easily plotting on the solution set of the equation. For example y=x (3, 3), (7, 7), (0, 0). This scientific finding allowed mathematicians to convert geometry to algebra vice versa. It later on help notable scientist like Newton discovered calculus. According to Burtt, “The work of Descartes had an enormous influence throughout all Europe during the latter part of the seventeenth century, largely because he was not only a great mathematician and anatomist, but also a powerful philosophical genius….”