Biography

René Descartes was born in La Haye, France, in 1596. His mother died less than a year later, after giving birth to Descartes's sister, and soon thereafter his father began travelling away on legal and political business for more than six months out of the year. Descartes and his sister and their older brother were left in the care of friends and relatives, and by the time he was ten, Descartes was sent away to a rigorous Jesuit boarding school aimed at turning boys into pious and gracious gentlemen. He was bookish, small, and weak in health. He received a thorough education in classical literature and Latin, and excelled in mathematics. After boarding school he followed family tradition and studied to be a lawyer, and received his law degree by the time he was 20. But by then he realized that he did not want to be a lawyer, and he was not sure what to do with himself.

It was expected that his older brother would inherit his father's title and most of his wealth, and Descartes was not entitled to any share in the family's holdings until he turned 25. So for the next five years Descartes signed up with the military and served in various capacities as a soldier throughout France, Holland and Germany. Not much is known about his activities, although we know that he continued to develop his knowledge of mathematics and physics, and began to form a vision of his own philosophy.