Luxist Web Search

Get answers to your AOL Mail, login, Desktop Gold, AOL app, password and subscription questions. Find the support options to contact customer care by email, chat, or phone number.

Tree of knowledge (philosophy) The tree of knowledge or tree of philosophy is a metaphor presented by the French philosopher René Descartes in the preface to the French translation of his work Principles of Philosophy to describe the relations among the different parts of philosophy in the shape of a tree. He describes knowledge as a tree.

“Yesterday morning about four o'clock a.m. has deceased here at the house of His Excellency Mr. Chanut, French ambassador, Mr. Descartes. As I have been informed, he had been ill for a few days with pleurisy. But as he did not want to take or use medicines, a hot fever appears to have arisen as well.

It is with these six primary passions ( wonder, love, hate, desire, joy, and sadness) that Descartes begins his investigation on their physiological effects and their influence on human behavior. He then follows by combining the six passions to create a holistic picture of the passions. The work is itself divided into three parts, titled:

The World, also called Treatise on the Light ( French title: Traité du monde et de la lumière ), is a book by René Descartes (1596–1650). Written between 1629 and 1633, it contains a nearly complete version of his philosophy, from method, to metaphysics, to physics and biology . Descartes espoused mechanical philosophy, a form of natural ...