René Descartes quotes
1596 – 1650 · Early modern Europe, 17th century · Philosopher, mathematician and natural philosopher
About René Descartes
Born in La Haye en Touraine, Descartes sought a first indubitable truth from which knowledge could be rebuilt. A founder of modern rationalism, he argued that the act of thinking or doubting secures the existence of the thinking subject and made key contributions to mathematics and natural philosophy.
Works: Discourse on the Method; Meditations on First Philosophy; Principles of Philosophy
Quotes
“I think, therefore I am.”
Source: Discourse on the Method ; Meditations on First Philosophy · Check the source
Verified attributionWhat we know
- What is documented
- Descartes is securely tied to the cogito; his writings present the argument in several formulations, Latin and vernacular.
- What remains uncertain
- The concise Latin tag functions as a canonical label; Descartes used varying phrasings such as “I am, I exist,” and the exact French wording is a later rendering.
The cogito isolates a minimal certainty: thinking proves the existence of a thinking self in that instant. Descartes used this to rebuild knowledge from a point immune to radical doubt, reshaping modern ideas about subjectivity and reason.