ABSTRACT
René Descartes was born into the family of a minor noble in the town of La Haye in Touraine, France. At age 10, René began a nine-year course of studies at the Royal Jesuit College of La Flèche. There he studied humanities, theology, and philosophy (which included morals, logic, mathematics, metaphysics, and science). Though he did well in school, he was disillusioned by the uncertainty of his studies and their contradictory conclusions. Like many modern students, he felt overwhelmed by the multitude of opinions he encountered. He later wrote in his Discourse on Method that upon completing his course of study, “I found myself embarrassed with so many doubts and errors that it seemed to me that the effort to instruct myself had no effect other than the increasing discovery of my own ignorance.”
