French philosophy for René Descartes' oeuvre. Modern philosophy began in France with the philosophy of René Descartes (1596–1650). His "Meditations on First Philosophy" changed the primary object of philosophical thought from ontology to epistemology and overcame the Aristotelian dogmatism inherited in philosophy from Scholasticism, the dominant form of thought in preceding centuries, while simultaneously raising some of the most fundamental problems for future generations of philosophers. René Descartes was concerned with the uncertainty in the sciences and the radical scepticism which spread across Europe when publications of Sextus Empiricus became available. Descartes desired to find indubitable ground on which all the sciences
Philosophy encyclopedia Philosophy encyclopedia A philosophy encyclopedia is a comprehensive reference work that seeks to make available to the reader a number of articles on the subject of philosophy. Many paper and online encyclopedias of philosophy have been written, with encyclopedias in general dating back to the 1st century AD with Pliny the Elder's "Naturalis Historia". The "Encyclopédie" was a French encyclopedia edited by the philosopher and art critic Denis Diderot and the scientist, mathematician, and philosopher Jean le Rond d'Alembert. It was compiled by a group of intellectuals called the "Encyclopédistes" and includes, in addition to Diderot and d'Alembert, the famous