René Descartes (1596–1650) was a French polymath whose work spanned philosophy, mathematics, and science. He is widely recognized as the father of modern philosophy due to his systematic, method-based approach to knowledge, famously encapsulated in his statement "cogito, ergo sum" ("I think, therefore I am"). His philosophical works, including "Meditations on First Philosophy" and "Passions of the Soul," continue to be studied.