Abstract

The scale of persona of Rene Descartes, who was the founder of several trends of philosophical thought, often overshadows the intellectual life of the era and the environment that gave rise to Cartesianism. At the same time, we observe a unique situation, when the philosophical doctrine being seized by the secular educated society, rather than the intellectual elite. The key condition for such impact of the philosophical system consists in the fact that the philosophy should meet the demands the era and the environment it is proliferated within. Therefore, the author places Rene Descartes and some aspects of his philosophy in a specific historical context, pursuing correlation with the thoughts and ideas of his contemporaries. This method indicates how the philosophy of Descartes completes and structures the mental transformation that have already taken place or were taking place in French society. Descartes’ perception of his mission, his appeal to future generations, should not deceive or allow to forget that Descartes is not just philosopher with whom the finest minds of the next centuries are engaged into a dialogue or debate, but also a nobleman of the XVII, who responded to the demands of his time. It were not the complicated philosophical tasks that he tried to solve, but the particular answers that influenced and formed the European mentality of the Modern Age without the fact that the perception of his philosophy by the contemporaries would of fully correspond to its essence, and the impact correspond to the letter. Affected by the philosophy of Descartes, the society develops new behavioral norms that underlie the subconscious of modern culture; and from this space of the unsconsious affect the life of modern society.