“Goodbye” Rene Descartes – Died 11 February 1650

René Descartes (31 March 1596 – 11 February 1650) was a French philosopher, mathematician, and writer who has been called the ‘Father of Modern Philosophy’. One of his most notable works is his Meditations on First Philosophy  which continues to be a used by many educational establishments philosophy departments.

Descartes’ influence in mathematics is also not in doubt.  The Cartesian coordinate system — allowing reference to a point in space as a set of numbers, and allowing algebraic equations to be expressed as geometric shapes in a two-dimensional coordinate system was named after him.

He is also credited as the father of analytical geometry and  was  one of the key figures in the Scientific Revolution.