René Descartes: A Brief Guide to His Life and Work

Originally published in 1910 as a portion of the author’s larger “Masters of Achievement,” this Kindle edition, equivalent in length to a physical book of approximately 16 pages, describes the life and work of French philosopher, mathematician, and scientist René Descartes.

Sample passage:
He declared he could find nothing but doubt and uncertainty in the opinions of men on all subjects. He repeats what the skeptic philosopher had already said about the general reasons for suspecting all our so-called knowledge. Our senses, memory, and even the reasoning faculties deceive us, not merely in complex subjects, but even in the simple details of geometry. There seemed only one way to overcome the difficulty, and that was to make universal doubt the point of departure for a new method of reasoning. He found one, and only one proposition that seemed to him to stand the test, and of which the truth could not possibly be doubted: that proposition was that he existed, which he inferred from the fact of his possessing consciousness.

About the author:
Henry Woldmar Ruoff (1865-1935) was an author whose other works include “The Century Book of Facts,” “The Capitals of the World,” and “Leaders of Men.”