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|First Name=ReneRené

|SummaryBrief=Rene Descartes (1596CE-1650CE) was a French mathematician and natural philosopher. In A History ; who is today considered one of Western Philosophy Bertrand Russell calls the most influential figures in modern philosophy|Summary=Descartes rejected the “founder of modern philosophy” Aristotelian-medieval mosaic accepted for his rejection most of the scholastic previous two thousand years, and laid the foundations of his predecessorsa new mechanistic mosaic.<ref>[[CiteRef::Russell, Bertrand(1945)|p. A History of Western Philosophy524]][[CiteRef::Newman (2014)]][[CiteRef::Garber (1993)]] Aristotelians had maintained that intuition schooled by experience was the route to knowledge. London: RoutledgeDescartes, 1946. E-Book.</ref> Descartes’ Discourse on the Method (full title in his ''Discourse on the Method of Rightly Conducting One’s Reason and of Seeking Truth in the Sciences'' (''Discourse on Method''), first published in 1637, laid down the foundation for a break with the Aristotelian methodology that had pervaded through the better part of the previous two-thousand years.<ref>Garber, Daniel. "Descartes and Experiment in the Discourse and Essays." Vos, Stephen. Essays on the Philosophy and Science of Rene Descartes. New York[[CiteRef:: Oxford University Press, 1993. 288-310. Print.</ref> Descartes posited (2007)]] put forward a normative rationalist scientific methodology whereby in which a proposition is acceptable only if it can be clearly and distinctly perceived by the intellect beyond all reasonable doubt or follows deductively from such propositions. Descartes advanced [[CiteRef::Newman (2014)]] This allowed him to advance a mathematical, apriorist a priorist approach to scientific knowledge and inquiry.<ref>[[CiteRef::Garber(1992)]][[CiteRef::Clarke (1992)]] Rejecting the Aristotelian world of forms, substances, Daniel. "Descartes and Experiment teleology, he posited a mechanical world in the Discourse which matter possessed only spatial extension and Essaysinteracted only by contact." VosIn mathematics he developed techniques that made possible analytic geometry. In natural philosophy, Stephen. Essays on he was co-framer of the Philosophy and Science sine law of Rene Descartes. New York: Oxford University Presslight refraction, 1993. 288-310. Print.</ref>|Historical Context=Descartes’ work developed as a response to theory of the Aristotelian-Scholastic tradition that had come to form rainbow, and formulated a precursor of the centerpiece nebular hypothesis of the contemporary mosaic in origin of the early seventeenth-century. Descartes had been well educated in this tradition over the course of his education at La Fleche where he studied a traditional Scholastic curriculum of logic, grammar, philosophy, mathematics, and theology under Jesuit instructionsolar system. [[CiteRef::Hatfield (2016)]]|Historical Context=The [[Scientific Mosaic|scientific mosaic ]] of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries was based primarily on the works of [[Aristotle ]] and some later Hellenistic natural philosophers, . This was reconciled in various ways with Christian theology by scholars in the high middle agesHigh Middle Ages. It This '''Aristotelian-scholastic mosaic''' included elements such as Christian theologyPtolemaic astronomy, astrology, humoral physiology, astrology, Ptolemean astronomy, and Christian (Catholic, in many but not all communities contemporaneous with Descartes) theology.<ref>[[CiteRef::Haldane(1905)]] Descartes was well educated in this tradition through his attendance at the prestigious Jesuit La Fleche College between the ages of ten and eighteen. He studied a traditional scholastic curriculum of logic, Elizabeth Sgrammar, philosophy, mathematics, and theology. Natural philosophy was taught from the works of Aristotle as interpreted by Christian scholars. Descartes His Life also received an education in mathematics that was unusual for the Aristotelian tradition, and Timesexcelled at math. London[[CiteRef:: John Murray, 1905Gaukroger (1995)|pp. Print.</ref>38-61]][[CiteRef::Rodis-Lewis (1992)]][[CiteRef::Garber (1992)]]

Notably, Descartes’ major writings are either contemporaneous with or shortly successive to periods came in a time of significant social and intellectual upheaval in Europe. Descartes Before writing his major works, he was a participant in the Thirty Years War before writing his major works and . He travelled extensively around Europe at a time when the continent was embroiled in both reformation and counter-reformation,<ref>Cottingham, John. "Introduction." The Cambridge Companion to Descartes. Ed. John Cottingham. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992. 1-20. Print.</ref> both of which were both a wellspring of new thought in theology and philosophy. Philosophically, Descartes The community of the time was immediately preceded by Bacon, whose contributions to epistemology helped engaged with major challenges to weaken the foundations of the ScholasticAristotelian-Aristotelian mosaicscholastic tradition.<ref>Rodis-LewisThese came from varied sources, including varieties of Platonism, Hermeticism, Genevieve. "Descartes' Life and the Development chemical philosophy of his PhilosophyParacelsus, among other movements." The Cambridge Companion to Descartes. Ed. John Cottingham. Cambridge[[CiteRef:: Cambridge University Press, Garber (1992. 21-57. Print.</ref> Scientifically, a number of )]] There were new advancements had been made developments in optics, astronomy, and physiology during or shortly prior to Descartes’ lifetime; he commented on .[[CiteRef::Cottingham (1992)]] Aristotle's earth-centered cosmology had been challenged by the trial of Galileo and was familiar with the works work of Nicolaus Copernicus and (1473-1543), Johannes Kepler(1571-1630), the latter of whose work was already celebrated at La Fleche College when Descartes was attending<ref>Hatfieldand Galileo Galilei(1564-1642), Gary. Rene Descartes. Ed. Edward N. Zalta. 21 June 2016. Web.</ref>. Although which Descartes was critical of Galileo’s methodology it is clear that he nevertheless had read and was familiar with his work, which was instrumental in weakening the various communities’ confidence in the salience of the Aristotelian mosaic.[[CiteRef::Ariew Hatfield (19862016)]] Also notable is that Descartes’ most prominent teacher was the Calvinist natural philosopher Isaac Beeckman, whose work directly conflicted with the Aristotelian tradition by positing atomism and by rejecting plenism.<ref>[[CiteRef::Rodis-Lewis, Genevieve. "Descartes' Life and the Development of his Philosophy." The Cambridge Companion to Descartes. Ed. John Cottingham. Cambridge(1992)]][[CiteRef:: Cambridge University Press, 1992. 21-57. Print.</ref> These and other factors place Descartes in a historical context rife with revolutionary change and immense scholarly interest in the changing landscape of academic inquiry.Ariew (1986)]]

In terms of his methodology After leaving La Fleche, in 1618,Descartes was largely responding to what he perceived as the dogmatism and marked lack of progress he perceived became involved in a collaboration with the Scholastic tradition within which he was schooled at La Fleche. His motivations Dutch Calvinist natural philosopher Isaac Beeckman (1588-1687), who valued him for undertaking his investigations mathematical skills. They worked together on several mathematical problems in natural philosophy. [[CiteRef::Gaukroger (1995)|p. 68]] Beeckman was a supporter of the way he did are well documented in his writings '''mechanical natural philosophy'''. This was a [[Theory Pursuit|pursued]] radical alternative to Aristotelian cosmology, embraced by some supporters of Copernican heliocentrism.[[CiteRef::Luthy, Murdoch, and correspondencesNewman (2001b)]][[CiteRef::Chalmers (2014)]][[CiteRef::Gaukroger (1995)|p. He was unsatisfied with 69-73]] It rejected the education he received in college Aristotelian fundamentals of form, substance, and teleology, and frustrated with the conservatism of his instructorsidea that matter is continuous. In part one Instead of explaining the Discourse on properties of visible bodies in terms of form, it maintained that the Method he writes “there is nothing at stake for the scholar except perhaps world consisted of invisibly tiny particles of matter and that all the further his conclusions are from common sense the prouder he will be observable properties of visible bodies were a consequence of them because he will have had these particles and their interactions. The particles were held to use so much more skill interact mechanically, by contact, and ingenuity it was often supposed that this rendered natural phenomena potentially explainable in trying geometrical and mathematical terms. It can be traced to make them plausible!”<ref>Descartes, Renethe Ancient Greek '''atomism''' of Democritus (circa 460-370 BCE) and later Epicurean philosophers. Discourse on Atomism was reintroduced into European thought in the fifteenth century with the Method rediscovery of Rightly Conducting Onethe Roman poet Lucretius's Reason and ''De rerum natura''. Part of Seeking Truth its appeal lay in the Sciences. Trans. Jonathan Bennett. Early Modern Texts (2007)fact that unlike Aristotle's physics, 1637. Document.</ref> His weariness the mechanical philosophy was compatible with the largely dialectical scholastic method is what led him to develop the highly systematized epistemology and metaphysics for which he would come to be knowna moving planetary Earth.|Major Contributions=Descartes was instrumental in revolutionizing In the mosaic of early seventeenth-century Europe , it was championed by proposing a new methodologyGiordano Bruno (1548-1600), Nicolas Hill (1570-1610?), Sebastian Basso (1573-1625?), Francis Bacon (1561-1626), new core scientific theories in physics and mathematicsGalileo Galilei.[[CiteRef::Garber (1992)]][[CiteRef::Klein (2012)]][[CiteRef::Gatti (2001)]][[CiteRef::Luthy, Murdoch, and new understandings of epistemology and metaphysics.Newman (2001b)]]

The most notable In terms of Descartes’ contributions his methodology Descartes was his introduction largely responding to what he perceived as the dogmatism and marked lack of a new method for pursuing knowledge progress he saw in the science that was distinct from Scholastic tradition, and his excitement with the previously accepted method inherited from Aristotlenew mechanical natural philosophy. Descartes had become frustrated His weariness with the previous largely dialectical scholastic method of is what led him to develop the Scholastic European tradition highly systematized epistemology and its dialectical approach metaphysics for which he would come to knowledgebe known. The Aristotelian-seekingscholastic mosaic continued to be [[Theory Acceptance|accepted]] throughout Descartes's life, which he charged with plunging him into skeptical doubts whereby he could never be sure what was true acceptance of his views coming later.|Major Contributions=Descartes new methodology and what was notmechanical natural philosophy were of revolutionary importance. They became accepted at Cambridge University in England by 1680,[[CiteRef::Barseghyan (2015)|p. He writes 211]] and in Discourse on France by about 1700, displacing the Aristotelian-medieval system of theories that had been central elements of the [[Scientific Mosaic|scientific mosaic]] for centuries. These theories were ultimately fully displaced throughout Europe by Descartes' theories and by the Methodlater theories of [[Isaac Newton]] (1642-1726).[[CiteRef::Barseghyan (2015)|p. 167]]

“But no sooner had I completed ===Cartesian Methodology===Under the whole course of study that normally takes one straight into Aristotelian scholastic [[Methodology|methodology]] a theory is acceptable “if it grasps the ranks nature of the ‘learned’ than I completely changed my mind about what this education could do for me. For I found myself tangled in so many doubts and errors that I came to think that my attempts to become educated had done me no good except to give me a steadily widening view of my ignorance!”<ref>Descartesthing through intuition schooled by experience, Reneor if it is deduced from general intuitive principles”. Discourse on the Method of Rightly Conducting One's Reason and of Seeking Truth in the Sciences. Trans. Jonathan Bennett. Early Modern Texts [[CiteRef::Barseghyan (20072015), 1637. Document|p.</ref>144]] Descartes concluded that if his goal was became frustrated with this tradition and its dialectical approach to attain certain knowledge about the world then the presently accepted method was insufficient and that a new one would be required to satisfy his aims. Method was a central theme in Descartes’ writing and held a central place in Descartes’ epistemology; in fact-seeking, one of Descartes’ criticisms of Galileo was that which he failed to produce a fully developed method to justify his discoveries.<ref>Ariew, Roger. "Descartes as a Critic of Galileo's Scientific Methodology." Synthese, Vol 67, No 1 (1986): 77-90. Print.</ref> To that end he embraced his sceptical charged with plunging him into skeptical doubts and devised a method based on methodological scepticism; a method whereby he rejects all knowledge that he cannot could never be certain of, accepts only those propositions which he can accept as certain, sure what was true and proceed deductively from those axioms according to reasonwhat was not. By this method He writes in ''Discourse on Method'':[[CiteRef::Descartes hoped to produce a kind of systematized knowledge that could be universally acceptable. As it happened the sole indubitable proposition upon which he would build the entire rest of his philosophical system was his famous ‘Cogito, Ergo Sum’ (also styled ‘Dubito, Ergo Cogito, Ergo Sum’ or simply as ‘the Cogito’2007); “I think, therefore I am.” From this foundation Descartes deduced his being a created thing, his requiring a creator, that creator being God, the nature of God, and the reliability of his senses and reason, all of which would form the broader foundation of his systematized scientific worldview<ref>Newman, Lex. Descartes' Epistemology. Ed. Edward N. Zalta. 21 December 2014. Web.</ref>.]]

Although Descartes maintained some methodological aspects of <blockquote>“But no sooner had I completed the Scholastic-Aristotelian mosaic – namely the axiomatic-deductive, epistemic-foundationalist structure whole course of investigation – study that normally takes one critical difference in Descartes’ methodology was straight into the shift in the method ranks of theory choice. According to Barsegyen the accepted method of the Scholastic-Aristotelian method was that a theory is acceptable “if it grasps the nature of a thing through intuition schooled by experience, or if it is deduced from general intuitive principles.”<ref>Barseghyan, Hakob. The Laws of Scientific Change. Springer, 2015. E-Book.</ref> The keywords in ‘learned’ than I completely changed my mind about what this formulation of the Scholastic-Aristotelian method are intuition and experience, both of which are necessary conditions education could do for one to be justified in accepting a propositionme. Descartes’ methodology is notable For I found myself tangled in so many doubts and errors that it jettisons both of those conditions; a proposition need be neither experientially based nor intuited for it I came to be acceptable, and although his system as it ended up allowed for knowledge think that was both experiential and intuited<ref>Newman, Lex. Descartes' Epistemology. Ed. Edward N. Zalta. 21 December 2014. Web.my attempts to become educated had done me no good except to give me a steadily widening view of my ignorance!”</refblockquote>, the ultimate justification for knowledge claims was human reason. In this way Descartes is both a rationalist and an apriorist, in that his epistemology and metaphysics allows for the existence of synthetic a priori propositions.

===Descartes concluded that if his goal was to attain certain knowledge about the world,the accepted methodology for doing so must be rejected, and a new one formulated. Methodology held a central place in his epistemology; in fact, one of Descartes’ criticisms of Galileo was that he failed to produce a fully developed methodology to justify his discoveries, and had simply explained particular physical phenomena.[[CiteRef::Ariew (1986)]] Rather than experience and intuition, Descartes' '''methodological skepticism''' was based on reason and on the capacity to doubt. The Cartesian Revolution in Natural Philosophy===harder a proposition was to doubt, the greater its certainty. This was an epistemological innovation.

Descartes played a pivotal role in the transition away from the Scholastic-Aristotelian mosaicHis strategy was, and his physical, physiological, psychologicalfirst, and biological theories are too numerous to reject all knowledge that he cannot be adequately treated here.<ref>Hatfieldcertain of, Garyand accept only those propositions of which he is certain. Rene DescartesHe would deduce other knowledge from such axioms using reason. Ed. Edward N. Zalta. 21 June 2016. Web.</ref><ref>Garber, Daniel. "By this method Descartes' Physics." The Cambridge Companion hoped to Descartes. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992. 286-334. Print.</ref> That said, produce a number kind of his theories are worth exploring in brief, in particular those systematized knowledge that were fundamental departures from the could be universally accepted mosaic of the early sixteenth century. The first and most dramatic of these is Descartes’ rejection of hylomorphism and In his ''Meditations on First Philosophy'', [[CiteRef::Descartes (2004)]] Descartes identified the form-matter distinction sole indubitable proposition upon which he would be the foundation for Descartes’ rejection build his entire philosophical system: he was certain of most of the prior physicshis own existence as a thinking being, or in Latin, '''''‘Cogito, Ergo Sum’''''' (also styled ''‘Dubito, Ergo Cogito, Ergo Sum’'' or simply as ''‘the Cogito’''); “I think, therefore I am. In place of ” From the hylomorphic theory foundation of substance his own existence, Descartes proposed deduced that there are in fact two kinds of substances he must be a created being, that this requires a creator, that are entirely different from each other in composition and kind: mental substance and physical substance. Descartes equated the former with creator being God, the rational soul benevolent nature of God , and humans the consequent reliability of his senses and of the latter with all physical matter, the fundamental feature God-given ability of which he considered his reason to be extensionform clear and distinct ideas. Descartes deduced It was therefore possible to use his scientific theories about senses and reason to gain knowledge of an external world. This reasoning formed the natural world from this basically metaphysical foundation (all of which he deduces by application of his method)systematized scientific worldview. For example the central concept in Cartesian mechanics is that all material interactions are interactions between matter, which fills the universe [[CiteRef::Newman (plenism also followed from Descartes’ position of matter as extension because if all matter is extended then there can be no space without extended matter, i.e. a vacuum2014). Descartes also considered the universe to be essentially mechanical in character except for mental substance – animals according to Descartes, as being constituted solely of material substance and without mental substance, are mere automata and cannot be said to think, feel, or love in the way that human beings or God can. ]]

The details Descartes maintained some aspects of the Cartesian school Scholastic-Aristotelian methodology – namely an axiomatic-deductive, epistemic-foundationalist structure of natural philosophy are not as important however as investigation. But the critical difference in his methodology was the impact that shift in the school would have on subsequent scientific inquirymethod of theory choice. The overthrow of He jettisoned the Aristotelian traditionexpectation that a theory must be experientially based and intuitively obvious for it to be acceptable, and although his system, as it ended up, even in places where Cartesianism allowed for knowledge that was rejected both experiential and the community maintained Aristotelianismintuited, forced [[CiteRef::Newman (2014)]] the academic community in Europe to reconsider ultimate justification for knowledge claims was human reason and defend the Aristotelian mosaic absence of doubt. Descartes was both a '''rationalist''' and an '''a priorist''', in ways that his epistemology and metaphysics allows for the existence of synthetic a priori propositions. Although an argument for God's existence was at the foundation of his system, Descartes' rationalism was nonetheless a formidable challenge to the accepted theological methodology which had never before been encounteredcomprehensively expressed by the Catholic saint, Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) more than three hundred years earlier. Though Aquinas saw human reason as limited, and always to be exercised in the dialectical approach context of, and subject to scholarship throughout the medieval period saw scholars constantly questioning various aspects authority of , the Aristotelian worldview Descartes’ wholesale rejection divine revelation of huge swaths the Bible. Descartes, by contrast, sought to develop his epistemology and theology on the basis of human reason alone. [[CiteRef:: Hyman (2007)]] ===Cartesian Natural Philosophy===Descartes scientific theories about the mosaic and its central concepts natural world were unprecedentedgrounded in a metaphysical foundation, in turn deduced by the application of his rationalist methodology. Theories He wrote that "the whole of philosophy is like hylomorphisma tree. The roots are metaphysics, the trunk is physics, and the branches emerging from the trunk are all the other sciences, which had been may be reduced to three principle ones, namely medicine, mechanics, and morals".[[CiteRef::Clarke (1992)|p. 271]] One ought to construct a given metaphysics first, based on criteria independent of observation, and subsequently consider physical theories consistent with the metaphysical foundation. His natural philosophy was in stark contrast to the mosaic accepted Aristotelianism. In Aristotelian natural philosophy all objects were a compound of the sixteenth form and matter, a concept called hylomorphism. Form gives material bodies their distinctive properties, and makes them different from one another. It explains why fire rises and early seventeenth centuries stones fall. Matter is what all material bodies share in common. All things have teleological goals or purposes. [[CiteRef::Shields (2016)]]  In Descartes' mechanical corpuscular natural philosophy, by contrast, there are just two kinds of substance that are entirely different from each other in kind: mental substance and had endured through multitudes physical substance. The fundamental property of adjustments'''mental substance''' was thought, reconciliations and dialectic criticism had never before faced complete overhaul Descartes equated it with the rational soul of God and humans. The fundamental feature of '''physical substance''' was extension in space. He rejected Aristotle's distinction between form and matter, including Aristotle's four elements. [[CiteRef::Ariew (1992)]] Cartesian mechanics rejects the void posited by atomists; instead matter fills the universe as Descartes threateneda plenum. Although If all matter is extended, Descartes would eventually reasoned that there can be supplanted no space without extended matter. Also unlike atomism, matter is infinitely divisible, though visible things are composed of tiny corpuscles that interact with one another by Newton he made the critical first steps physical contact. The corpuscular composition of a material body, rather than its Aristotelian form, determines its properties. Since corpuscles are too small to be directly observed, their size and shape must be hypothesized, though observation can allow us to replacing infer the Scholastic-Aristotelian mosaic<ref>Hatfieldplausibility of our guesswork. Our senses, Gary. Rene Descartesmaintained, do not inform us of the mechanical world as it is, but provide us with sensations which are mere signs of their objective causes. EdOnly extended matter and motion exist apart from our minds. Edward N[[CiteRef::Clarke (1992)]] Descartes completed a manuscript that was to be a comprehensive expression of his mechanical natural philosophy, called ''The World''. ZaltaHe withdrew his plans to publish it upon learning of the condemnation of Galileo in Rome in 1633. 21 June 2016The work never appeared during his lifetime, but two major fragments, the ''Treatise on Light'', and the ''Treatise on Man'' were published posthumously. Web.<The first dealt with physics, and the second put forward a theory of physiology, nervous system function, and the mind/ref>brain relationship.[[CiteRef::Garber (1992)]][[CiteRef::Descartes (2003)]] |Criticism=Descartes’ ideas saw widespread criticism In Descartes cosmology, the universe is essentially mechanical in his time character. Copernican heliocentrism is accepted, and shortly after from all manner planetary motion is explained in terms of a swirling '''vortex''' of material particles around the central sun. Earth, as a moving planet, is the center of its own smaller vortex. The particles of sourcesthe vortex push larger bodies towards its center and this explains gravity without supposing, including Scholastic vanguardsas did Aristotle, religious authoritiesthat the sphere of earth was at rest in its natural place; the center of the universe. It also made it reasonable to suppose that other planets had their own attractive vorticies, and were thus other philosophersworlds. [[CiteRef::Garber (1992)]]  Descartes also challenged Aristotelian physiology. By 2016 almost all Aristotle's theory of physiology posited three souls or vital principles; the nutritive soul, responsible for nutrition and reproduction, comprised the entirety of Descartes’ ideas have been consigned the soul in plants. The sensitive soul, responsible for perception, locomotion, imagination, and desire, was added to the graveyard sensitive soul in animals. A third component, the intellectual soul, was found uniquely in human beings. [[CiteRef::Shields (2016b)]][[CiteRef::Van der Eijk (2000)]] Descartes rejected the nutritive and sensitive souls, supposing their functions were instead performed by corpuscular mechanisms, the nature of which he outlined in his ''Treatise on Man''. [[CiteRef::Descartes (2007)]] Descartes' mental substance served roughly the same role as Aristotle's intellectual soul. Animals, according to Descartes, are complex automata composed of ideasphysical substance only and cannot be said to think in the way that human beings or God can; these properties being made possible by mental substance. [[CiteRef::Des Chene (2001)]][[CiteRef::Clarke (1992)]][[CiteRef::Descartes (2007)]] Descartes posited a mental substance for theological, metaphysical, and scientific reasons. He supposed that thought could not be mechanized, since all the machines known to him were specialized to perform one particular function, but it human reason was a general purpose instrument.[[CiteRef::Hatfield (1992)]][[CiteRef::Cottingham (1992)]] Descartes mechanical natural philosophy fostered a radical change in how natural philosophers gained new knowledge. The Aristotelian-medieval methodology accorded a very limited role for experiments in scientific investigation. This is worth noting some criticisms Descartes faced because a strict distinction was made between natural and artificial things. Every natural thing behaved in his lifetime or shortly thereafter accordance with its nature; acorns grow on oak trees, because that is what their nature dictates. Artificial things have an external source of change. The cogs and springs of a clock are constructed so that they no longer behave according to their respective natures (which is simply to fall towards their natural place at the center of the universe, rather than function as parts of a machine that tells time for humans). A thing cannot reveal its true nature under the artificial conditions of experimentation, because the experimental set up necessarily puts things under artificial conditions. To gain knowledge, things must be observed in their natural undisturbed state. Descartes' mechanical natural philosophy rejected the natural/artificial distinction along with its rejection of forms and teleology. Matter always obeyed the same set of historical interestmechanical laws regardless of its situation.Thus,under the mechanical natural philosophy experimentation was often a good source of knowledge about nature, and its adherents often became practitioners. [[CiteRef::Barseghyan (2015)|p.181-182]]

The most notable objection challenge to the Aristotelian tradition, even in places where Cartesianism was rejected and the community maintained Aristotelianism, forced the academic community in Europe to reconsider and defend the Aristotelian mosaic in ways that had never before been encountered. Though the dialectical approach to scholarship throughout the medieval period saw scholars constantly questioning various aspects of the Aristotelian worldview, Descartes’ wholesale rejection of huge swaths of the mosaic and its central concepts were unprecedented. Theories like hylomorphism (that being is a compound of matter and form), which had been a given in the mosaic of the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, and had endured through multitudes of adjustments, reconciliations, and dialectic criticism, but had never before faced complete overhaul that Descartes 's mechanical natural philosophy threatened. Although Descartes' theories would end up facing would eventually be the more mathematically precise and more explanatorily powerful physical theory given supplanted by those of Newton half a century later, but there existed objection he made the critical first steps to Descartes even earlierreplacing the Aristotelian-scholastic mosaic. One particularly notable objection came [[CiteRef::Hatfield (2016)]]|Criticism=Descartes’ ideas saw widespread criticism in his time and shortly after from Princess Elizabeth all manner of Bohemiasources, who questioned Descartes’ theory including Scholastic vanguards, religious authorities, and other philosophers. One common early criticism was that his new views were threatening to the Catholic and Christian faith.[[CiteRef::Jolley (1992)]] In 1663, his works were placed on the Catholic Church's ''Index of substance Forbidden books'', and in 1671 his conception was officially banned from schools in a letter dated the tenth Catholic world. In the early modern period, theological propositions and natural philosophical propositions were not seen as belonging to separate domains, but rather formed parts of May, 1643an integrated [[Scientific Mosaic|scientific mosaic]]. In Aristotelian natural philosophy had been carefully adapted to render it, she asks “Given consistent with Catholic faith. Descartes' novel natural philosophy introduced many inconsistencies that needed to be [[The Zeroth Law|reconciled]] before his theories could be [[Theory Acceptance|accepted]]. [[CiteRef::Barseghyan (2015)|p. 190-196]] One specific theological criticism of Cartesian natural philosophy had to do with the soul Catholic sacrament of a human being is only a thinking substance, how can it affect the bodily spiritsholy Eucharist, in order which bread and wine are said to bring about voluntary actions?”<ref>Descartes, Rene be transformed into the body and Elizabeth Princess blood of BohemiaChrist. Correspondence Between Descartes The dogma of the ''Real Presence'' maintained that in this sacrament, Christ is really (as opposed to metaphorically or symbolically) present in the bread and Princess Elizabethwine. EdThomas Aquinas had posited an Aristotelian explanation for the ''Real Presence'' which had become the accepted Catholic ''doctrine of transubstantiation''. Jonathan BennettThe doctrine held that in the Eucharist, the Aristotelian substance of the bread and wine were replaced by the body and blood of Christ, while their forms (that of bread and wine) remaining unchanged. Early Modern TextsIn Descartes' corpuscularism, 2009bread and wine differed from flesh and blood because they had a different arrangement of corpuscles. DocumentThere is no obvious way that one could appear as the other.</ref> Descartes would never gives a satisfactory answer over The Anglican church, the course state church of England following its break with the correspondenceCatholic papacy in the 1530's did not accept the ''doctrine of transubstantiation''. Thus Cartesianism did not face objections based on it, and became accepted at Cambridge University by 1680. Catholic Paris didn't accept it until 1700. Many solutions reconciling Cartesianism and the ''Real Presence'' had, by then, been proposed. Barseghyan speculates that the single example highlights how troubling one accepted by the issues left open Parisian community was that proposed by Descartes’ system are for Antoine Arnauld (1612-1694) in 1671, in which Christ's presence in the Eucharist was due to a miracle beyond human comprehension, and outside the integrity ordinary course of that systemnature described by Cartesianism. Elizabeth’s objection raises reasonable [[CiteRef::Barseghyan (significant2015)|p. 194]] Critics in Decartes' era were also concerned that corpuscular explanation involved hypothetical unobservable entities, even) doubts and the supposition that this invisibly small world could be understood by analogy with larger objects. Descartes countered that "there is nothing more in keeping with reason that we judge about whether or those things that we do not perceive, because of their small size, by comparison and contrast with those that we see" [[CiteRef::Clarke (1992)|p. 267]] He felt that a plausible model, though potentially incorrect due to the theory unobservability of substance around which Descartes bases its fundamental parts, was better than none at all. The role of unobservably small entities in the physical sciences was to remain a significant portion matter of his scientific theories can hold waterprolonged debate. In modern science, it is an accepted and central practice.

One Another notable objection came from Princess Elizabeth of the most powerful objections to arise after Bohemia (1618-1680), who questioned Descartes’ death theory of substance in 1650 came a generation later with letter dated the tenth of May, 1643. In it, she asks “Given that the emergence soul of a human being is only a thinking substance, how can it affect the bodily spirits, in order to bring about voluntary actions?”[[CiteRef::Descartes (2009)]] Descartes would never gives a satisfactory answer to this central question over the philosophy course of John Locke and the British Empiricistscorrespondence. LockeIn 1747, despite being in his ''L'Homme machine''(''Machine Man'') Julien Offray de La Mettrie (1709-1751) raised another simple, but devastating objection to Descartes' supposition that human reason must be due to an admirer immaterial mental substance. He noted that reason can become impaired by material causes such as drunkenness and fever. [[CiteRef::De La Mettrie (1996)]]. In the nineteenth century, Princess Elizabeth's objection became far more poignant with the formulation of the law of the conservation of energy, which implied causal closure of Descartesthe physical world to influence by a mental substance. In the early twentieth century, the mathematician Alan Turing (1912-1954) showed that it was highly critical possible to construct a general purpose machine capable of his methodology performing any possible mathematical computation, thereby demonstrating that a general purpose machine was possible and in particular was critical refuting Descartes' core argument against a mechanical understanding of human reason. By the end of his methodological scepticismthe twentieth century, which Locke regarded as the relevant scientific communities of neuroscience and cognitive science had rejected the idea of a mental substance and sought a non-starter.<ref>Uzgalismechanistic physical explanation for the mind [[CiteRef::Bechtel (2008)]], Williamthough there was still no agreement as to whether consciousness could be explained in this fashion. John Locke. Ed. Edward N. Zalta. 21 March 2016. <http[[CiteRef:://plato.stanford.edu/entries/locke/>.</ref>Chalmers (1996)]]

Other objections were political, theological, and personal objections brought by various interest groups who had some stake in the academic status quoDescartes' physical natural philosophy did not fare nearly so well. In many places Descartes’ work was bannedWithin fifty years, in Isaac Newton (1642-1726) formulated a more even discussion of Descartes’ work was banned. Official condemnations came down from Universities mathematically precise and Church authoritiesexplanatorily powerful physical theory, none of which were effective at stopping became the spread accepted theory of Cartesian ideas <ref>Jolley, Nicholasthe physical world. "The Reception It rejected a major tenet of Descartes' Philosophycorpuscularism by positing a gravitational force that acted at a distance." The Cambridge Companion Newton's laws of motion, however, bore important similarities to those formulated earlier by Descartes. Cambridge[[CiteRef: Cambridge University Press:Clarke (1992)]] As practicing scientists, 1992. 393researchers like Newton and Robert Boyle (1627-4231691) did not, as did Descartes, seek certain knowledge of the real essences of material objects. PrintInstead, they sought an ordering of phenomenal experience which would enable them to predict nature's course with the best available theory.</ref>[[CiteRef::Osler (1970)]]

Descartes' method itself was criticized by two sympathetic figures; Antoine Arnauld and Marin Mersenne. Their criticism had to do with Descartes demonstration of the existence of God, which is the linchpin of his method. Descartes claimed that our belief in the reliability of the clear and distinct perceptions of the human intellect depends on our knowledge of the existence of God as the source of that capacity. But how could that knowledge be established in the first place? If we answer that we can prove God's existence from premises we clearly and distinctly perceive, then the argument collapses into circularity. Descartes' argument that it is possible for us to have certain scientific knowledge of the world fails with it, since it depends on God to underwrite the reliability of our senses and intellect. This criticism, called the '''Cartesian Circle''', was never successfully countered. Within a generation, Descartes quest for certainty in scientific knowledge was widely recognized to have failed. [[CiteRef::Cottingham (1992)]] In 1650, [[John Locke]] and the British Empiricists brought forth a new conception of scientific knowledge that was more modest than Descartes' failed quest for certainty. The empiricists argued for experience, rather than a priori reason, as the basis for human knowledge, and sought a philosophy of science more in keeping with scientific practice. [[CiteRef::Uzgalis (2016)]][[CiteRef::Osler (1970)]]|Related Topics=Method, Methodology,|Page Status=ReferencesEditor Approved}}{{YouTube Video|VideoID=yFH7i3Lx7IA|VideoDescription=Hakob Barseghyan's lecture on Cartesian Worldview|VideoEmbedSection=Major Contributions