René Descartes (1596–1650)

Mathematician and founder of modern philosophy, known for his distrust of formal rhetoric. The Cartesian method and effort to achieve philosophic certainty are often cited as a challenge to rhetoric; yet, given Descartes's frequent deployment of rhetorical strategies, it is not surprising that his system makes provision for their provisional use. Furthermore, in spite of Descartes's aspira-tion toward a philosophy beyond rhetoric, postmodern critics find his system an entirely rhetorical construct. In Part One of the Discourse on Method, Descartes deni-grates the utility of formal rhetoric for persuasion, maintaining that clear and distinct ideas suffice. His claim to construct a new philosophic system ignoring previous ones implicitly questions the usefulness of the rhetorical tradition. Proclaiming the unity of all knowledge, he advocated a single method drawing its uni-versal validity not from the specificity of individual discipline