Search
Log in
  • Home

  • Categories

  • Audiobooks

  • E-books

  • For kids

  • Top lists

  • Help

  • Download app

  • Use campaign code

  • Redeem gift card

  • Try free now
  • Log in
  • Language

    🇫🇮 Suomi

    • FI
    • EN

    🇧🇪 Belgique

    • FR
    • EN

    🇩🇰 Danmark

    • DK
    • EN

    🇩🇪 Deutschland

    • DE
    • EN

    🇪🇸 España

    • ES
    • EN

    🇫🇷 France

    • FR
    • EN

    🇳🇱 Nederland

    • NL
    • EN

    🇳🇴 Norge

    • NO
    • EN

    🇦🇹 Österreich

    • AT
    • EN

    🇨🇭 Schweiz

    • DE
    • EN

    🇸🇪 Sverige

    • SE
    • EN
  1. Books
  2. Society and Social Sciences
  3. Philosophy

Read and listen for free for 14 days!

Cancel anytime

Try free now
0.0(0)

Descartes in 60 Minutes : Great Thinkers in 60 Minutes

The French thinker René Descartes is one of the best-known philosophers in the world. His brief dictum "I think, therefore I am" has become part of all humanity's cultural heritage. Just as Columbus discovered an unknown continent, the so-called "New World", Descartes succeeded in opening up a new dimension of knowledge and altering our view of reality. Prior to Descartes, people in the Christian West believed, for over a thousand years, in the Bible as testimony to God's revealed truth. Then came Descartes with the radical demand that knowledge had from then on to rely on a basis of absolute certainty: "It was always my most earnest desire to learn to distinguish the true from the false". He posed the fundamental question: how does one arrive at sure and certain knowledge? On what can I really rely? On what I see and hear? On thought and logic? Or perhaps on what I have learned from my earliest childhood on? His radical answer runs: on nothing at all! We must doubt absolutely everything!

In his famous Meditations on First Philosophy Descartes describes his search for this absolutely certain knowledge. The result he arrives at: I can doubt anything and everything but in the moment of my doubting I cannot doubt that there is an "I" that thinks and doubts: "I think, therefore I am". Is thinking really the human trait that decides everything about us? Is there really nothing in the world except "thinking" within us and thoughtless, soulless bodies outside of us? Is it science's task to subjugate matter, plants and animals and even the human body itself? Descartes does more than just lay the ground for modern science. In a sense, his thought has become our destiny, both for good and for bad. The book appears as part of the well-loved series Great Thinkers in 60 Minutes which has now been translated worldwide into six languages.


Author:

  • Walther Ziegler

Format:

  • E-book

Duration:

  • 91 pages

Language:

English

Categories:

  • Society and Social Sciences
  • Philosophy

More by Walther Ziegler

Skip the list
  1. Camus in 60 Minutes

    Walther Ziegler

    book
  2. Kafka en 60 minutes

    Walther Ziegler

    book
  3. Arendt en 60 minutes

    Walther Ziegler

    book
  4. Arendt en 60 minutes

    Walther Ziegler

    book
  5. Great Thinkers in 60 Minutes - Volume 5

    Walther Ziegler

    book
  6. Great Thinkers in 60 Minutes - Volume 4 : Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Wittgenstein, Kafka, Arendt

    Walther Ziegler

    book
  7. Great Thinkers in 60 Minutes - Volume 3 : Confucius, Buddha, Epicurus, Descartes, Hobbes

    Walther Ziegler

    book
  8. Epicurus in 60 Minutes : Great Thinkers in 60 Minutes

    Walther Ziegler

    book
  9. Schopenhauer en 60 minutes

    Walther Ziegler

    book
  10. Kafka in 60 Minutes : Great Thinkers in 60 Minutes

    Walther Ziegler

    book
  11. Descartes en 60 minutes

    Walther Ziegler

    book

Others have also read

Skip the list
  1. Kaikki tasan! : Pamfletti epätasa-arvosta

    Inari Juntumaa, Jenni Korkeaoja, Rosa Meriläinen, Elina Moisio, Emmi Nuorgam

    book
  2. Foucault

    Gary Gutting

    audiobook
  3. Tiede, tieto ja sukupuoli

    Liisa Husu, Kristina Rolin

    book
  4. Tasa-arvopolitiikan suunnanmuutoksia : Talouskriisistä tasa-arvon kriiseihin

    Johanna Kantola, Paula Koskinen Sandberg, Hanna Ylöstalo

    book
  5. Jakautuuko Suomi? : Eriarvoisuus tutkijoiden, toimittajien ja taiteilijoiden silmin

    Ville Lähde, Johanna Vehkoo

    book
  6. Madness and Civilization

    Michel Foucault

    audiobook
  7. The Tragedy of Heterosexuality

    Jane Ward

    audiobook
  8. Sukupuolishow : Johdatus feministiseen mediatutkimukseen

    Anna Mäkelä, Liina Puustinen, Iiris Ruoho

    book
  9. Discipline & Punish

    Michel Foucault

    audiobook
  10. Feminists Don't Wear Pink and Other Lies

    audiobook
  11. Tasa-arvo toisin nähtynä : Oikeuden ja politiikan näkökulmia tasa-arvoon ja yhdenvertaisuuteen

    Johanna Kantola, Kevät Nousiainen, Milja Saari

    book
  12. The History of Sexuality, Vol. 1

    Michel Foucault

    audiobook

Help and contact


About us

  • Our story
  • Career
  • Press
  • Accessibility
  • Partner with us
  • Investor relations
  • Instagram
  • Facebook

Explore

  • Categories
  • Audiobooks
  • E-books
  • Magazines
  • For kids
  • Top lists

Popular categories

  • Crime
  • Biographies and reportage
  • Fiction
  • Feel-good and romance
  • Personal development
  • Children's books
  • True stories
  • Sleep and relaxation

Nextory

Copyright © 2025 Nextory AB

Privacy Policy · Terms ·
Excellent4.3 out of 5