RENE DESCARTES （1596-1650）, a French philosopher and writer who has been called the "Father of Modern Philosophy," and in particular, his Meditations on First Philosophy continues to be a standard text at most university philosophy departments.

Descartes is perhaps best known for the philosophical statement "Cogito ergo sum" （I think, therefore I am; or I do think, therefore I do exist）.

BARUCH DE SPINOZA （1632,-1677） was a Dutch philosopher. By laying the groundwork for the i8th century Enlightenment and modern biblical criticism, he came to be considered one of the great rationalist's of the 17th-century philosophy Gilles Delouse names him "the prince of philosophers."