Descartes Mathematics of the Billions

Descartes Mathematics

Of the billions of humans that have ever existed, only a sparse handful are known by name to the modern-day human. The trademark of those individuals whose names still live on the tongue of every schoolchild is a life characterized by principle. It is inevitable that such principles be judged reprehensive by some and honorable by others, but those names which still echo down the passage of time carried a flame of consistency that reinforced their spirit and made it as near immortal as man can approach.

That Descartes was a man of radical ideas (for his time) is very true, but at the same time inconsequential. Descartes developed a system of principles early in his life, and those principles characterized his life so powerfully that the same brand of idea that brought ruin to Galileo was projected thousands of years into the future, and into a time when such consideration can be brought into perspective.

A concrete example of this quasi-caricaturized idealism was his insistence on never rising from bed before eleven in the morning. In the seventeenth century, the dark ages were not quite over, and the vast majority of the population -- the serfs and peasants -- were poor and oppressed. They rose at dawn and slept when the light was no more. Unlike the bourgeoisie, which accommodated itself to such hours, Descartes insisted on living life in the manner which seemed reasonable to him.

Before "cogito ergo sum" was ever conceived, Descartes introduced a number of enthymemic principles. The first was that he, as an individual, had the right to assert his wishes. The concept that the mere state of being a living, breathing human implies right and privileges is fundamental to most present-day beliefs, but at the time it was worse than disgusting; it was blasphemous.

Another example was his unshakeable self-confidence. Despite signs of anti-sociality, such as moving from house to house yearly without notice and keeping strange hours, Descartes was not intimidated by his separation from society, but rather insistent on it. It allowed him to work in peace and, perhaps most importantly to avoid contaminating sources of thought.