History of physics Descartes 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, important to the discovery of calculus and analysis. The
Warren Goldfarb Warren Goldfarb Warren David Goldfarb (born 1949) is a philosopher and mathematician with a specialization in the history of analytic philosophy and in logic, most notably his work on the classical decision problem (see his book on the subject, "The decision problem: Solvable classes of quantificational formulas", with Burton Dreben). He received his Ph.D. from Harvard University, where he is now Walter Beverly Pearson Professor of Modern Mathematics and Mathematical Logic in the Department of Philosophy. He has been on the Harvard faculty since 1975, and was tenured in 1982, the only philosopher to be promoted to tenure at Harvard