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Rene Descartes
勒内·笛卡儿
Rene Descartes was a French philosopher and writer who spent most of his adult life in the Dutch Republic. He has been dubbed the “Father of Modem Philosophy”，and much subsequent Western philosophy is a response to his writings, which are studied closely to this day. In particular, his Meditations on First Philosophy continues to be a standard text at most university philosophy departments. Descartes’ influence in mathematics is equally apparent. He is credited as the father of analytical geometry, the bridge between algebra and geometry. Descartes was also one of the key figures in the Scientific Revolution.
勒内·笛卡儿是一名法国哲学家，成年后大部分时间却住在荷兰。他被认为是现代西方哲学的奠基人，在他之后的西方哲学相当一部分是对他的作品和思想的回应。他的著作在今天仍受到广大学者的仔细研究。尤其是他的《第一哲学沉思集》一直是众多大学哲学系的标准教材。笛卡儿在数学上的影响也同样显著，他还被称为“解析几何之父”。笛卡儿也是科学革命中的主要人物。
Descartes was born in La Haye en Touraine (now Descartes), Indre-et-Loire, France. When he was one year old, his mother died. His father was a member in the provincial parliament. At the age of eight, he entered the Jesuit College Royal Henry-Le-Grand at La Fleche. After graduation, he studied at the University of Poitiers, earning a Baccalaureat and Licence in law in 1616，in accordance with his father’s wishes that he should become a lawyer.
笛卡儿生于法国安德尔-卢瓦尔省的图赖讷（现笛卡尔，因笛卡儿得名）。他一岁多时母亲就去世了。他父亲是省议会的议员。8岁时笛卡儿就进入拉夫赖士（La Fle che)的耶稣会学校接受教育，毕业后到普瓦捷大学学习法律，1616年，如父亲所愿，获得中学毕业证书及法律执业资格。
He spent most of his youth traveling, visiting courts and armies, mixing with people of diverse temperaments and ranks, gathering various experiences. Despite frequent moves he wrote all his major work during his 20 plus years in the Netherlands, where he managed to revolutionize mathematics and philosophy. In 1633, Galileo was condemned by the Roman Catholic Church, and Descartes abandoned plans to publish Treatise on the World, his work of the previous four years. Nevertheless, in 1637 he published part of this work in three essays: Les Meteores (The Meteors), La Dioptrique (Dioptrics) and La Geometrie (Geometry), preceded by an introduction, his famous Discours de la Metode (Discourse on the Method).
笛卡儿年轻时花费了大量时间游历各方，参观王宫和军队，与各种性格和阶层的人们交往，积攒不同的经历。尽管经常迁移，他的主要作品仍然是在他20多岁时在荷兰完成的，他试图掀起一场数学和哲学的革命。1633年，迦利略被罗马天主教会控告有罪，使笛卡儿放弃了出版《世界》，这是他前四年的心血的结晶。然而,在1637年，他将这本书中的部分内容发表在三篇小散文中：《折光学》、《气象学》和《几何学》，书的序言就是他著名的《方法论》。
Descartes continued to publish works concerning both mathematics and philosophy for the rest of his life. He died on 11 February 1650 in Stockholm, Sweden, where he had been invited as a tutor for Queen Christina of Sweden. The cause of death was said to be pneumonia — he may have suffered a detrimental effect on his health due to Christina’s demands for early morning study. The lack of sleep could have severely compromised his immune system.
笛卡儿余生里继续出版关于数学和哲学的著作。他于1650年2月11日在瑞典斯德哥尔摩逝世，之前他受瑞典女王邀请来到瑞典，为克里斯蒂娜皇后当老师。据说他感染了肺炎，可能是因为克里斯蒂娜要求早起学习，长期的缺乏睡眠严重影响了他的免疫系统，给他的健康带来了慢性损害。
