Answer
Descartes, a renowned French philosopher, and Gassendi, his contemporary, engaged in a significant philosophical dispute over the nature of knowledge and its attainability. Descartes asserted that through reason and logic, one could achieve absolute certainty about the existence of a perfect being and the material world. In contrast, Gassendi argued for a more skeptical stance, emphasizing the limitations of human reason and the fallibility of the senses.