René Descartes - Place Anatole France (Tours, France) - Statues of Historic Figures on Waymarking.com

Not so far from Tours Municipal Library in Place Anatole France you cand find the depicted marble statue of one of the most influential philosopher, thinker and mathematician of the Baroque Europe - René Descartes.

The statue, 3 m high (approx. 1.8× life size) and sculpted from white marble, is copy of bronze statue of Descartes from The Hague. The author of the original was French sculptor Alfred Emile O'Hara comte de Nieuwerkerke. On the upper part of the statue's pedestal is carved Descartes' the best known philosophical statement "Cogito ergo sum" (I think, therefore I am).

The statue shows standing Descartes in typical Baroque higher-class men suit (leggings and frilly coat, pants, jacket and mantle) with left hand on the chest and with book in the right hand.

René Descartes (March 31st, 1596 – February 41th, 1650) was a French philosopher, mathematician, and writer who spent most of his adult life in the Dutch Republic. He has been dubbed the "Father of Modern Philosophy", and much subsequent Western philosophy is a response to his writings, which are studied closely to this day. In particular, his Meditations on First Philosophy continues to be a standard text at most university philosophy departments. Descartes' influence in mathematics is equally apparent; the Cartesian coordinate system — allowing algebraic equations to be expressed as geometric shapes in a two-dimensional coordinate system — was named after him. He is credited as the father of analytical geometry, the bridge between algebra and geometry, crucial to the discovery of infinitesimal calculus and analysis. Descartes was also one of the key figures in the Scientific Revolution. [wiki]