Download or read book Descartes’s Mathematical Thought written by C. Sasaki and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2003-11-30 with total page 526 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Covering both the history of mathematics and of philosophy, Descartes's Mathematical Thought reconstructs the intellectual career of Descartes most comprehensively and originally in a global perspective including the history of early modern China and Japan. Especially, it shows what the concept of "mathesis universalis" meant before and during the period of Descartes and how it influenced the young Descartes. In fact, it was the most fundamental mathematical discipline during the seventeenth century, and for Descartes a key notion which may have led to his novel mathematics of algebraic analysis.