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Cogito Ergo Sum

Cogito Ergo Sum

FromThe Philosophy of Descartes


Cogito Ergo Sum

FromThe Philosophy of Descartes

ratings:
Length:
45 minutes
Released:
Jun 27, 2014
Format:
Podcast episode

Description

The foundation of all science and other knowledge is found, according to Descartes, in the indubitable belief that I exist (the cogito claim). As soon as I have the thought, "I am thinking, so I exist", I realize this thought cannot be doubted: simply to have it, is to see that it is true. The problem is that in the first "Meditation", Descartes had introduced the possibility that even logic and mathematics is dubitable if we imagined our minds might be subject to manipulation by an evil demon or mad scientist. So why should the cogito be excepted? Has Descartes' commitment to hyperbolic doubt undermined his own project?

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Released:
Jun 27, 2014
Format:
Podcast episode

Titles in the series (6)

René Descartes, the ‘father of modern philosophy’ wrote his essay Meditations (published 1641) not long after Shakespeare published the Sonnets (1609). The change from Shakespeare to Descartes represents the shift from the Renaissance to the era of Modernism. The humanism of the Renaissance gives way to rationalism and a faith in the emerging sciences.