René Descartes
René Descartes (1596-1650) was a French polymath who did most of his work in the Dutch Republic. He was both a mathematician—we still use his ‘Cartesian coordinates’—and a key figure in Western philosophy. Descartes grew up in an era when education was massively influenced by the notion of truth by authority, the idea that because Aristotle—or some other important thinker—said it, it must be true.
Books by René Descartes
“René Descartes is a superb writer who, in his first Meditation (which is the one I’m recommending) takes skepticism—which is an unwillingness to assume anything, a philosophical stance where you question everything—about as far as it can go. Meditations is written as if he is going through a process in real time, he’s imagining himself sitting by a fire taking all the thoughts that he’s had in his past, the different ways of acquiring information, cross-questioning himself about whether he could have been deceived about any of those, and employing what’s come to be known as ‘Cartesian Doubt’. It’s not taking as true anything about which there is the slightest possible doubt. In ordinary life, that’s not a way to behave.” Read more...
Key Philosophical Texts in the Western Canon
Nigel Warburton, Philosopher
Interviews where books by René Descartes were recommended
Key Philosophical Texts in the Western Canon, recommended by Nigel Warburton
Even if you’ve never studied philosophy, it’s nice to be able to read a few books and get a sense of what it’s all about. Here, we asked our philosophy editor, Nigel Warburton, to talk us through five key works of Western philosophy—many of them in the public domain and available for free as ebooks—and explain why, despite one or two odd conclusions or quirky writing styles, they’ve played such an important role in expanding our understanding of the world.
The best books on Deceit, recommended by Dallas Denery
The Professor of History outlines how our understanding of deceit has changed: from a devilish sin in the Middle Ages, to a social necessity in the Enlightenment
The best books on The Philosophy of Information, recommended by Luciano Floridi
The Oxford professor of philosophy and ‘the ethics of information’ says methods for discussing the ethics of information technology have been latent in philosophy from its origins. He picks the best books on the philosophy of information.
The best books on Metaphysics, recommended by Tim Crane
It’s abstract and not everyone’s cup of tea but, in many ways, inescapable. Philosopher Tim Crane introduces the best books on metaphysics.
