René DescartesFrancis NguyenMme. Nguyen period 1René Descartes is perhaps the most famous. However, it was mathematics that appealed to him the most for its innate truth and its application to other branches of knowledge. Later in his life he developed mathematical and philosophical concepts that are still widely used today. Overall, René Descartes must be considered one of the most influential mathematicians of all time for his work in analytical geometry, which laid the foundations of algebraic, differential, discrete, and computational geometry, as well as for his application of mathematics to philosophy. was born on March 31, 1956 in Touraine, France. Although in poor health throughout his life, he studied fervently all his life. He entered the Jesuit College at the age of eight, where he studied classics, logic and philosophy. Descartes spent a few more years in Paris contemplating mathematics with companions, for example Mersenne. In time, a man with this type of training would either join the armed forces or the congregation. Descartes decided to join an aristocrat's armed forces in 1617. During his service, Descartes addressed a certain geometric question that had been used as a test for the whole world to understand. After tackling the problem in just a few hours, he met a man named Isaac Beeckman, a Dutch researcher. This would end up being a long purse. Since he became aware of his scientific abilities, military life was unacceptable for Descartes. Nevertheless, he remained a warrior despite the impact of his family and its conventions. In 1621, Descartes surrendered to the armed forces and traveled for five years. Throughout this period he separated himself from what became known as synthetic geometry (geometry without algebra, dealing with proofs, axioms, theorems and postulates). Geometry also had the misfortune of appearing on the list of works prohibited by the Church. This was due to the meditations of René Descartes, which seemed to liberate Europe from ecclesial thinking and thus went against Catholic teaching. Descartes was excommunicated by the Church, and they condemned all of his works, which would slow the spread of analytical geometry. The Church, as mentioned above, and by later scientists, also refuted René Descartes' idea of ​​rationalism. Descartes' main argument was that we know things to be true because our mind (res cogitans) was separate from our body (res extensa). However, as we know today, the mind and body are one, and so his rationalist argument lost ground.,