Gómez Pereira

Gómez Pereira (1500 - 1567) was a Spanish philosopher, doctor, and natural humanist from Medina del Campo. Pereira worked hard to dispel medieval concepts of medicine and proposed the application of empirical methods; as for his philosophy, it is of the standard direction and his reasonings are a clear precedent of René Descartes. He was famous for his practice of medicine, although he had many diverse occupations, such as owning businesses, engineering, and philosophy. He is credited with helping Descartes come up with the famous phrase cogito ergo sum, meaning I think, therefore I am in Latin.