Amid the intellectual and religious ferment of the seventeenth century, this brilliant French mathematician, scientist and philosopher led a revolution as decisive as any of the political struggles that ravaged Europe at the time.

Descartes was born of wealthy parents. After being given the finest education his age offered, he plunged into the dizzying social whirl of Paris. As skilled with the sword as with the pen, as elegant as he was intelligent, he cut a gallant figure in the salons of the capital and in the military camps of the great generals of the time.

By the time he had reached his mid-twenties, however, Descartes had dedicated himself to the pursuit of scientific knowledge—a pursuit that was to prove more challenging than any social triumph, more dangerous than any battle. Already such men as Galileo and Kepler had questioned accepted ideas, and young Descartes joined their ranks. Seeking safety first in Holland, then in Sweden, he labored to reconcile science and religion. With the publication of his Discourse on Method and other works, he provided an alternative to the Aristotlean philosophy that had reigned supreme for centuries.

By the time of his death, the man who declared, "I think, therefore I am," had succeeded in ushering in a new era of thought and inquiry. This is the story of the father of the modern scientific method, who dared face bitter attack and the threat of condemnation by his Church to give men a new way of looking at the world and at themselves.

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