René Descartes' Life and Works - Biography from the Stanford Encyclopedia by Kurt Smith. Descartes - Biography of René Descartes from the MacTutor History of Mathematics archive. Catholic Encyclopedia: René Descartes - Biographical article from the Catholic Encyclopedia. René Descartes - A brief and useful overview of Descartes' life and thinking on Wikipedia. René Descartes - A Brief Life Sketch - Brief outline of Descartes' life and achievements, with some interesting sidenotes. Philosophy Pages: Descartes - A brief discussion of the life and works of Rene Descartes, with links to electronic texts and additional information by Garth Kemerling.