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Cartesian   /kɑrtˈiʒən/   Listen
adjective
Cartesian  adj.  Of or pertaining to the French philosopher René Descartes, or his philosophy. "The Cartesion argument for reality of matter."
Cartesian coordinates (Geom), distance of a point from lines or planes; used in a system of representing geometric quantities, invented by Descartes.
Cartesian devil, a small hollow glass figure, used in connection with a jar of water having an elastic top, to illustrate the effect of the compression or expansion of air in changing the specific gravity of bodies.
Cartesian oval (Geom.), a curve such that, for any point of the curve mr + m´r´ = c, where r and r´ are the distances of the point from the two foci and m, m´ and c are constant; used by Descartes.



noun
Cartesian  n.  An adherent of Descartes.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Cartesian" Quotes from Famous Books



... possible by means of numerical measures to make ourselves independent of the existence of marked positions (possessing names) on the rigid body of reference. In the physics of measurement this is attained by the application of the Cartesian system of co-ordinates. ...
— Relativity: The Special and General Theory • Albert Einstein

... to overstep the domain of faith and to encroach upon that of history and science. He quotes Strauss, Renan, Scherer, but he touches only the letter of them, not the spirit. Everywhere one sees the Cartesian dualism and a striking want of the genetic, historical, and critical sense. The idea of a living evolution has not penetrated into the consciousness of the orator. With every intention of dealing with things as they are, he remains, in spite of himself, subjective ...
— Amiel's Journal • Mrs. Humphry Ward

... formulated in his Doctrine of Degrees—a very exact metaphysical doctrine indeed. The alchemists, on the other hand, had no such clear ideas on the subject. It would be even more absurd to attribute to them a Cartesian dualism. To their ways of thinking, it was by no means impossible to grasp the spiritual essences of things by what we should now call chemical manipulations. For them a gas was still a ghost and air a spirit. One could quote pages ...
— Bygone Beliefs • H. Stanley Redgrove

... is there any such original principle, which has a prerogative above others, that are self-evident and convincing: or if there were, could we advance a step beyond it, but by the use of those very faculties, of which we are supposed to be already diffident. The Cartesian doubt, therefore, were it ever possible to be attained by any human creature (as it plainly is not) would be entirely incurable; and no reasoning could ever bring us to a state of assurance and ...
— An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding • David Hume et al

... the consequences of the Cartesian Dualism: as if [Greek: sarx], the living body, could be or exist without a soul, or a human living body without a human soul! [Greek: Sarx] is not Greek for carrion, nor [Greek: ...
— Coleridge's Literary Remains, Volume 4. • Samuel Taylor Coleridge


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