Essay - Descartes Mathematics of the Billions of Humans that Have Ever...

Descartes Mathematics

Of the billions of humans that have ever existed, only a sparse handful are known by name to the modern-day human. The trademark of those individuals whose names still live on the tongue ***** every schoolchild is a life characterized by principle. It is inevitable that such *****s be judged reprehensive by some and honorable by others, but those names which still echo down the passage of time carried a fl*****me of consistency ***** reinforced their spirit and made it as near immortal as man can approach.

That Descartes w***** a man of radical ideas (for his *****) is very true, but at the same time inconsequential. Descartes developed a system of principles e*****rly in his life, ***** those principles characterized his life so powerfully that the same brand ***** idea that brought ruin to Galileo was projected thousands of years into the future, and into a time when such consideration can be brought into perspective.

A concrete example ***** t***** quasi-caricaturized idealism was his insistence on never rising from bed before eleven in the morning. In the seventeenth century, ***** dark ages were not quite over, and the vast majority of the population—the serfs and peasants—***** poor ***** oppressed. They rose at dawn and slept when the light ***** no more. Unlike ***** bourgeoisie, which accommodated itself to such hours, Descartes insisted on living life in the *****ner ***** seemed rea*****nable to him.

Before "cogito ergo sum" was ever conceived, Descartes introduced a number of enthymemic principles. The first w*****s ***** he, as an individual, had the right to assert his wishes. The concept that the mere state ***** being a living, breathing human implies right and privileges is fundamental ***** most present-day beliefs, ***** at the ***** it was worse than d*****gusting; it was blasphemous.

Ano*****r example was ***** unshakeable self-confidence. Despite signs of anti-sociality, such as moving from house to ***** yearly without notice and keeping strange hours, Descartes ***** not intimidated ***** his separation from society, but rather insistent on it. It allowed ***** to work in peace *****, perhaps most importantly to avoid c*****taminating sources ***** thought.

It is worth noting ***** the key to this vital constancy was rooted in ***** fact that his beliefs confirmed ***** *****ity and personal powers of thought. At the age ***** twenty-three, he related that "those long cha*****s of reasons...had caused me to imagine that all things which fall under the cognizance of man might ***** likely by related in the ***** fashion" [emphasis added] (Lo Bello 5). This view, arrogant thought it may have been, preserved his sanctity of though for an entire *****time.

Which, as it turns out, is precisely how long it takes to earn