Why is the philosophy of Descartes revolutionary?

Hanoch Ben-Yami begins his first chapter with the assertion that Descartes revolutionized philosophy and immediately asks two questions: which of his ideas were revolutionary, and how did he arrive at them? His standard for "revolutionary ideas" requires that they. read more

Descartes was Catholic, and he asked himself how we can be sure that our knowledge of the world is correct. He hypothesised a demon (now called Descartes’ demon) which was always trying to corrupt our knowledge of the world. read more

The Cartesian philosophy (derived from his name, Descartes) won many followers during the seventeenth century. Francis Bacon, also called Lord Verulam, was somewhat less renowned and less successful than Descartes, but nevertheless highly influential. read more

Descartes was the first to formulate the mind-body problem in the form in which it exists today (see the section on Philosophy of Mind), and the first to clearly identify the mind with consciousness and self-awareness, and to distinguish this from the brain, which was the physical seat of intelligence . read more