... the most important Western philosophers of the past few centuries. Descartes was not only a prolific philosopher, but also an original physicist, physiologist and mathematician. He attempted to readdress the direction of philosophy, moving away from the Aristotelian and scholastic traditions that had dominated philosophical thought throughout the medieval period. He wanted to fully integrate philosophy with the sciences, using empirical methodology. The two most widely known of Descartes philosophical ideas are those of a method of hyperbolic doubt and the argument from the 'Cogito'. Both are incorporated into the meditations and are interdependent upon one another. The first, hyperbolic doubt, is clear for all to see in Descartes' first meditation, whereby he reiterates his desire to only hold 'true beliefs'. Descartes proposes to systematically follow a process of doubt. He decides to call into question every single belief that he holds at present or has held in the past. ...

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