I perceived it was possible to arrive at knowledge highly useful in life; and that, instead of the speculative philosophy usually taught in the Schools, we might find a practical, by means of which, knowing the force and action of fire, water, air, the stars, the heavens, and all other bodies that surround us, as distinctly as we know the various crafts of our artisans, we might in the same way employ them in all the uses to which they are adapted, and thus render ourselves in some sort masters and possessors of nature.
— Rene Descartes
Early Modern
Cogito ergo sum
