Rene Descartes

Summary
This lesson introduces students to Rene Descartes.

Objectives
• To be able to explain Descartes cogito .

• To be able to name some of Descartes ideas.

Suggested Grades
3rd Grade
4th Grade
5th Grade

Excerpt
Rene Descartes was born in 1596 to a family of the French lower nobility. He originally studied law at Poitiers and then traveled to Paris to study on his own. Descartes studied the works of a man named Montaigne while in Paris.

At the beginning of the Thirty Years War, Descartes joined the war effort by volunteering for service in the army of Maurice of Nassau. His desire to volunteer may not have actually come from wanting to fight in the war. Descartes also appeared to want time to travel and think.

Continued...