\[ **BT: [[knowledge#philosophy]]** ] --- # René Descartes (1596–1650) French philosopher. [[In the 1600s, Descartes proposed that the ‘the human body works like a machine and the organism’s physiological functions can be explained as operating in a way mechanically similar to clocks’.]][^1] [^1]: Nelson R. Cabej, *[[Cabej, Building the Most Complex Structure on Earth, 2013|Building the Most Complex Structure on Earth: Epigenetic Narrative of Development and Evolution of Animals]]* (Elsevier, 2013), p. 59, https://doi.org/10.1016/C2011-0-07792-X.