Descartes and his Doubt

We have Rene Descartes, a brilliant French guy who excelled in just a few areas while he was alive: philosophy, math, science, writing; nothing too impressive if you ask me, except maybe the math part. He was called the "Father of Modern Philosophy" and if you've ever heard the phrase "I think, therefore I am," he coined it in writing his Meditations on Modern Philosophy. Here are some excerpts from On the Things in which we may Doubt, the first meditation from that work.

Picture Descartes, isolated in a one room log cabin with fresh snow falling outside, as he describes himself to be 'seated by the fire, clothed in a winter dressing gown, I hold in my hands this piece of paper.'

He begins the meditations,

SEVERAL years have now elapsed since I first became aware that I had accepted, even from my youth, many false opinions for true, and that consequently what I afterward based on such principles was highly doubtful; and from that time I was convinced of the necessity of undertaking once in my life to rid myself of all the opinions I had adopted, and of commencing anew the work of building from the foundation...

and he continues...

To-day, then, since I have opportunely freed my mind from all cares [and am happily disturbed by no passions], and since I am in the secure possession of leisure in a peaceable retirement, I will at length apply myself earnestly and freely to the general overthrow of all my former opinions.

It doesn't matter to me whether I agree on what he concludes at the end of his meditations or not, this mindset he begins with is rad and good and beneficial.