Ebook: Discourse on Method

By calling everything into doubt, Descartes laid the foundations of modern philosophy. He deduced that human beings consist of minds and bodies; that these are totally distinct ''substances''; that God exists and that He ensures we can trust the evidence of our senses. Ushering in the ''scientific revolution'' of Galileo and Newton, Descartes' ideas swept aside ancient and medieval traditions of philosophical methods and investigation.