Rene Descartes

Not Just the Tudors

History Hit

History

4.8 • 3K Ratings

🗓️ 6 February 2025

⏱️ 38 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The famous saying "I think, therefore I am" was the cornerstone of the philosophy of Rene Descartes, who died 375 years ago this month at the age of 53. His groundbreaking ideas shaped Western thought and continue to influence our understanding of existence, knowledge and the nature of reality. Descartes' ground-breaking approach involved questioning all beliefs to determine those which are absolutely certain. Professor Suzannah Lipscomb is joined by Professor Catherine Wilson to discuss Descartes' ideas and how they continue to resonate in modern philosophy, science and even popular culture.

Presented by Professor Suzannah Lipscomb. The researcher is Alice Smith, audio editor is Amy Haddow and the producer is Rob Weinberg. The senior producer is Anne-Marie Luff.

Theme music from All3Media. Other music courtesy of Epidemic Sounds.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, I'm Professor Susanna Lipscomb.
0:02.4	If you'd like not just the Tudors ad-free to get early access and bonus episodes,
0:08.4	sign up to History Hit.
0:09.9	With a History Hit subscription, you can also watch hundreds of hours of original documentaries,
0:15.2	including my own, on Catherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn, Brilliant Rivals.
0:19.3	And enjoy a new release every week.
0:22.0	Sign up now by visiting historyhit.com forward slash subscribe.
0:27.6	Hello, I'm Professor Susanna Lipscomb and welcome to not just the Tudors from History Hit,
0:33.3	the podcast in which we explore everything from Amberlin to the Aztecs,
0:37.7	from Holbein to the Huguenots, from Shakespeare to Samarise.
0:43.1	Relieved by regular doses of murder, espionage and witchcraft.
0:47.6	Not in other words just the Tudors, but most definitely also the Tudors.
1:04.2	Born in 1596, in the village of Laet, France,
1:08.1	René Descartes has become known as the father of modern philosophy,
1:10.5	a pioneer of rational thinking. In the field of natural sciences,
1:13.6	Dekar paved the way for our current working model of the formation of the solar system, while his
1:20.7	work in mathematics laid the foundation for Isaac Newton's fundamental laws of motion. Before him, the majority of scientific thought was
1:29.7	tied to the belief that the world was made up of four elements, earth, water, air and fire,
1:36.2	and that these elements corresponded with the four humors of the human body. For Descartes, the
1:43.1	discovery of universal truths could only be achieved through
1:47.0	the process of doubting all one's accepted beliefs. And it was only through the questioning
1:53.0	of all things that we might discover what is true. My guest today is Catherine Wilson, Professor Emerita of Philosophy at the University of York,
	...

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