René Descartes was a Philosophy and religion good articles nominee, but did not meet the good article criteria at the time. There may be suggestions below for improving the article. Once these issues have been addressed, the article can be renominated. Editors may also seek a reassessment of the decision if they believe there was a mistake.
This article is within the scope of WikiProject France, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of France on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.FranceWikipedia:WikiProject FranceTemplate:WikiProject FranceFrance articles
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Philosophy, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of content related to philosophy on Wikipedia. If you would like to support the project, please visit the project page, where you can get more details on how you can help, and where you can join the general discussion about philosophy content on Wikipedia.PhilosophyWikipedia:WikiProject PhilosophyTemplate:WikiProject PhilosophyPhilosophy articles
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Biography, a collaborative effort to create, develop and organize Wikipedia's articles about people. All interested editors are invited to join the project and contribute to the discussion. For instructions on how to use this banner, please refer to the documentation.BiographyWikipedia:WikiProject BiographyTemplate:WikiProject Biographybiography articles
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Christianity, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Christianity on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.ChristianityWikipedia:WikiProject ChristianityTemplate:WikiProject ChristianityChristianity articles
This article is within the scope of the Military history WikiProject. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the project and see a list of open tasks. To use this banner, please see the full instructions.Military historyWikipedia:WikiProject Military historyTemplate:WikiProject Military historymilitary history articles
René Descartes is within the scope of WikiProject Catholicism, an attempt to better organize and improve the quality of information in articles related to the Catholic Church. For more information, visit the project page.CatholicismWikipedia:WikiProject CatholicismTemplate:WikiProject CatholicismCatholicism articles
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Mathematics, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of mathematics on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.MathematicsWikipedia:WikiProject MathematicsTemplate:WikiProject Mathematicsmathematics articles
This article is part of the History of Science WikiProject, an attempt to improve and organize the history of science content on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, you can edit the article attached to this page, or visit the project page, where you can join the project and/or contribute to the discussion. You can also help with the History of Science Collaboration of the Month.History of ScienceWikipedia:WikiProject History of ScienceTemplate:WikiProject History of Sciencehistory of science articles
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Constructed languages, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of constructed languages on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Constructed languagesWikipedia:WikiProject Constructed languagesTemplate:WikiProject Constructed languagesconstructed language articles
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Music theory, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of music theory, theory terminology, music theorists, and musical analysis on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Music theoryWikipedia:WikiProject Music theoryTemplate:WikiProject Music theoryMusic theory articles
Latest comment: 7 months ago1 comment1 person in discussion
His remains are not in the Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés. Even though his name is engraved on the floor, there is no tomb, and if you ask the church keepers, they will tell you the engravings are symbolic and that there are no more bones there. The skull is in the Musee de l'Homme but it is not in display, the real skull is in the research floor. 2A02:1811:C0E:9C00:C1A5:C871:B9D7:3E97 (talk) 01:56, 17 March 2024 (UTC)Reply
René DesCartes signed himself "Renatus DesCartes", as what was his preferred name (at the time).
Latest comment: 4 months ago1 comment1 person in discussion
As I'm typing this the first paragraph ends ", Descartes was Roman Catholic", followed by footnotes that, as I'm typing this, are numbered 15 and 16. The first footnote's article does nothing to substantiate the claim that Descartes was Roman Catholic. In fact, on the Roman Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation, the first footnote's article more strongly implies that Descartes rejected that doctrine than that he embraced it.
The second footnote does better, but falls short of what is needed. To satisfy an encyclopedia-reader who doesn't know if Descartes was Roman Catholic or not (and is indifferent on the point, not hoping that it should turn out that he was (or was not) Roman Catholic, only wishing to know which one is true), we should have, perhaps, some letter of Descartes mentioning his confessing his sins to a Roman Catholic priest, or obtaining Communion from the same. Or some contemporary who witnessed that and wrote it down. Or some writing by Descartes in which he explains why Reason supports some Roman Catholic doctrine while it refutes the irreconcilable Protestant doctrine on the same issue.
Further concerning the article at the second footnote, it says that all of Descartes's books were, at one time, banned by the Roman Catholic church. How is it possible for someone who advocates positions that the Roman Catholic Church says no Roman Catholic should believe to be a Roman Catholic? If that is possible, then what is the MEANING of the phrase "is a Roman Catholic"? (In modern times, of course, the ONLY definition of "Roman Catholic" is "someone who checks the 'Roman Catholic' tick-box for 'religion' on a form", and the ONLY doctrine you have to believe in order to be a Roman Catholic is "I believe I will check the 'Roman-Catholic' tick-box where a form requests my religion". If you believe that, then, in today's world (which disregards the resulting problem of the infinite self-reference's absurdity), you're a Roman Catholic, no matter what else you do (and don't) believe.)
This latter footnoted article also says
QUOTE:
One point of controversy at least can be settled. It was fashionable at one time to throw doubt on the sincerity of Descartes's religious convictions. He was and died a Catholic, in "the faith of his nurse",
UNQUOTE
but doesn't supply any argument or further footnote backing up the assertion that "he was and died a Catholic". It tells us the controversy CAN be settled, but then blatantly does NOT settle it. HOW can it be settled? By this article's tacit position of "He was Roman Catholic, because this article says so"?
To say that Descartes was Roman Catholic requires describing what he believed (as inferred from what he WROTE and from his ACTIONS), and describing how the ONLY religion with which his beliefs were not in conflict was Roman Catholicism. So we'd need some description of the Catholic and Protestant doctrines on those issues too. None of that can be found here, and it's not in the articles footnoted. This Wikipedia article, as written, based on the information it provides, is not justified in taking a stand one way or the other that Descartes was (or was not) Roman Catholic.2600:1700:6759:B000:E894:BFCC:705D:880 (talk) 22:14, 6 July 2024 (UTC)Christopher Lawrence SimpsonReply
level-3 vital article is rated B-class on Wikipedia's content assessment scale.
