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Descartes
University of Chicago Special Collections Research Center
These pages show French philosopher, mathematician and scientist René Descartes applying his scientific method to a rainbow (arc-en-ciel). Descartes's collection of essays, Discours de la methode, pour bien conduire sa raison, & chercher la verité dans les sciences. Plus la dioptrique, les meteores, and la geometrie; qui sont des essais de cette methode (Discourse on a method for guiding one's reason and discovering truth in the sciences. Plus dioptrics, meteorology, and geometry, which are some trials of this method), published in 1637, was one of the crucial documents in the move from medieval thought to the modern era.



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