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Rene Descartes
勒內·笛卡兒
Rene Descartes was a French philosopher and writer who spent most of his adult life in the Dutch Republic. He has been dubbed the “Father of Modem Philosophy”，and much subsequent Western philosophy is a response to his writings, which are studied closely to this day. In particular, his Meditations on First Philosophy continues to be a standard text at most university philosophy departments. Descartes’ influence in mathematics is equally apparent. He is credited as the father of analytical geometry, the bridge between algebra and geometry. Descartes was also one of the key figures in the Scientific Revolution.
勒內·笛卡兒是一名法國哲學家，成年后大部分時間卻住在荷蘭。他被認為是現代西方哲學的奠基人，在他之后的西方哲學相當一部分是對他的作品和思想的回應。他的著作在今天仍受到廣大學者的仔細研究。尤其是他的《第一哲學沉思集》一直是眾多大學哲學系的標準教材。笛卡兒在數學上的影響也同樣顯著，他還被稱為“解析幾何之父”。笛卡兒也是科學革命中的主要人物。
Descartes was born in La Haye en Touraine (now Descartes), Indre-et-Loire, France. When he was one year old, his mother died. His father was a member in the provincial parliament. At the age of eight, he entered the Jesuit College Royal Henry-Le-Grand at La Fleche. After graduation, he studied at the University of Poitiers, earning a Baccalaureat and Licence in law in 1616，in accordance with his father’s wishes that he should become a lawyer.
笛卡兒生于法國安德爾-盧瓦爾省的圖賴訥（現笛卡爾，因笛卡兒得名）。他一歲多時母親就去世了。他父親是省議會的議員。8歲時笛卡兒就進入拉夫賴士（La Fle che)的耶穌會學校接受教育，畢業后到普瓦捷大學學習法律，1616年，如父親所愿，獲得中學畢業證書及法律執業資格。
He spent most of his youth traveling, visiting courts and armies, mixing with people of diverse temperaments and ranks, gathering various experiences. Despite frequent moves he wrote all his major work during his 20 plus years in the Netherlands, where he managed to revolutionize mathematics and philosophy. In 1633, Galileo was condemned by the Roman Catholic Church, and Descartes abandoned plans to publish Treatise on the World, his work of the previous four years. Nevertheless, in 1637 he published part of this work in three essays: Les Meteores (The Meteors), La Dioptrique (Dioptrics) and La Geometrie (Geometry), preceded by an introduction, his famous Discours de la Metode (Discourse on the Method).
笛卡兒年輕時花費了大量時間游歷各方，參觀王宮和軍隊，與各種性格和階層的人們交往，積攢不同的經歷。盡管經常遷移，他的主要作品仍然是在他20多歲時在荷蘭完成的，他試圖掀起一場數學和哲學的革命。1633年，迦利略被羅馬天主教會控告有罪，使笛卡兒放棄了出版《世界》，這是他前四年的心血的結晶。然而,在1637年，他將這本書中的部分內容發表在三篇小散文中：《折光學》、《氣象學》和《幾何學》，書的序言就是他著名的《方法論》。
Descartes continued to publish works concerning both mathematics and philosophy for the rest of his life. He died on 11 February 1650 in Stockholm, Sweden, where he had been invited as a tutor for Queen Christina of Sweden. The cause of death was said to be pneumonia — he may have suffered a detrimental effect on his health due to Christina’s demands for early morning study. The lack of sleep could have severely compromised his immune system.
笛卡兒余生里繼續出版關于數學和哲學的著作。他于1650年2月11日在瑞典斯德哥爾摩逝世，之前他受瑞典女王邀請來到瑞典，為克里斯蒂娜皇后當老師。據說他感染了肺炎，可能是因為克里斯蒂娜要求早起學習，長期的缺乏睡眠嚴重影響了他的免疫系統，給他的健康帶來了慢性損害。
