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PHILOSOPHER

René Descartes

1596 - 1650

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René Descartes ( day-KART or UK: DAY-kart; French: [ʁəne dekaʁt] ; Latinized: Renatus Cartesius; 31 March 1596 – 11 February 1650): 58  was a French philosopher, scientist, and mathematician, widely considered a seminal figure in the emergence of modern philosophy and science. Mathematics was paramount to his method of inquiry, and he connected the previously separate fields of geometry and algebra into analytic geometry. Descartes spent much of his working life in the Dutch Republic, initially serving the Dutch States Army, later becoming a central intellectual of the Dutch Golden Age. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of René Descartes has received more than 10,378,416 page views. His biography is available in 165 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 154 in 2019). René Descartes is the 6th most popular philosopher (up from 7th in 2019), the 3rd most popular biography from France and the most popular French Philosopher.

René Descartes is most famous for his philosophical statement, "I think, therefore I am."

Memorability Metrics

  • 10M

    Page Views (PV)

  • 90.95

    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 165

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 17.11

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 4.04

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Page views of René Descartes by language


Among PHILOSOPHERS

Among philosophers, René Descartes ranks 6 out of 1,081Before him are Aristotle, Plato, Socrates, Confucius, and Pythagoras. After him are Gautama Buddha, Immanuel Kant, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Avicenna, John Locke, and Niccolò Machiavelli.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1596, René Descartes ranks 1After him are Michael of Russia, Frederick V of the Palatinate, Pietro da Cortona, Jan van Goyen, Pieter Claesz, Elizabeth Stuart, Queen of Bohemia, Nicola Amati, Peter Mogila, Emperor Go-Mizunoo, Baldassare Longhena, and Joan Blaeu. Among people deceased in 1650, René Descartes ranks 1After him are William II, Prince of Orange, Dorgon, Tukaram, Matthäus Merian, Charlotte Marguerite de Montmorency, Christoph Scheiner, Bernhardus Varenius, Catalina de Erauso, Claude Favre de Vaugelas, İbrahim Peçevi, and Jean Rotrou.

Others Born in 1596

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Others Deceased in 1650

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In France

Among people born in France, René Descartes ranks 3 out of 6,011Before him are Napoleon (1769) and Louis XIV of France (1638). After him are Joan of Arc (1412), Blaise Pascal (1623), Louis Pasteur (1822), Voltaire (1694), Victor Hugo (1802), Claude Monet (1840), Montesquieu (1689), Louis XVI of France (1754), and Jules Verne (1828).

Among PHILOSOPHERS In France

Among philosophers born in France, René Descartes ranks 1After him are Montesquieu (1689), Auguste Comte (1798), Michel de Montaigne (1533), Michel Foucault (1926), Henri Bergson (1859), Peter Abelard (1079), Jean Bodin (1530), Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (1809), Roland Barthes (1915), Henri de Saint-Simon (1760), and Charles Fourier (1772).