Descartes, Rene (1596-1650) - French philosopher and scientist regarded
as the father of modern rationalism. Also noted as a mathematician, he is
said to be the originator of modern scientific method and analytic geometry.
Meditations on the First Philosophy (1642) - Dedicated to the Dean and
Doctors of the Sacred Faculty of Theology in Paris, the purport of the
"Meditations" was to assuage the suspicions of the more extreme Calvinist
and Roman Catholic ecclesiastics regarding "Discourse on the Method."
