Discourse on Method: And Meditations on the First Philosophy (Barnes & Noble Library of Essential Reading) »

The fundamental proposition "Cogito ergo sum -- I think, therefore I am" remains the most-cited phrase of the well-known French philosopher René Descartes. Descartes is recognized as the foremost philosopher of his age, and his writings greatly influenced such philosophers as Hegel, Sartre, Spinoza, Leibniz, Malbranche, and Locke. \ \

Descartes was the founder of analytical geometry and is greatly appreciated for his mathematical and other scientific contributions. He wrote treatises on dioptrics, meteorology, and geometry. While his writings were critiqued widely by the theologians of his time, they had a major influence on science. \