Home > Encyclopedia of Psychology > René Descartes

1596-1650
French philosopher and mathematician whose ideas included early and significant contributions to the field of psychology.

Descartes was born in France, near the small village of Le Haye. From the age of 10, he attended the most prestigious school in France, the Royal Collège of La Flèche, graduating at the age of 16. After spending some time sampling the amusements of Parisian society, followed by a period of solitary studies in philosophy and mathematics, Descartes briefly served as a soldier on the eve of the Thirty Years' War, joining first the Protestant and then the Catholic forces. Returning to the study of science and philosophy after the war, he spent several more years in Paris before moving to Holland at the age of 32. There Descartes wrote his most important works, Discourse on Method (1637), Meditations on First Philosophy (1642), and Principles of...