Tagged: Descartes

From The TLS: Who was the first modern philosopher?

April 23, 2017 at 9:21 pm

Like the enlightenment, modernity is an umbrella term that is useful for what it covers but also in danger of excluding thinkers or ideas that might deserve the label. A.C. Grayling’s new book, The Age of Genius, devotes itself in part to answer the question of what exactly we mean when speaking of modern philosophy. […]

By Kush Ganatra | Posted in Great Questions | Also tagged , , , , | Comments (0)

From boingboing: “brain scans” of artificial intelligence processes

February 25, 2017 at 11:08 pm

Graphcore is a start-up company that has recently secured $30m “to deliver massive acceleration for machine learning.” One of its latest findings has been posted by Mark Frauenfelder at boingboing: “brain scans” of Graphcore’s Intelligence Processing Unit (IPU), which is likea rudimentary brain that can performbasic processes related to learning and memory. Here’s an image […]

By Kush Ganatra | Posted in Great Photograph, Great Questions, In the News | Also tagged , , | Comments (0)

From The Guardian: The Dream of Enlightenment

October 27, 2016 at 11:27 pm

It’s too easily supposed, after having heard their names used so often in sources not their own, that the enlightenment thinkers, and philosophers generally, have bequeathed to us all they have to say. That philosophy is a done deal, whose original enterprise is now more seriously undertaken by the natural sciences, or theology- kidding about […]

By Kush Ganatra | Posted in Great Books, Great Ideas | Also tagged , | Comments (0)

One Of Us: Discussing Descartes & Animal Consciousness

March 25, 2013 at 11:39 am

Relating to CC201’s study of The Renaissance is the essay ‘One Of Us’ by John Jeremiah Sullivan on animal consciousness, in which he discusses Descartes’ views on the topic. Here is an extract: Descartes’ term for them [animals] was automata—windup toys, like the Renaissance protorobots he’d seen as a boy in the gardens at Saint-Germain-en-Laye, “hydraulic statues” that […]

By mdimov | Posted in Academics, Curriculum, Great Personalities, Great Questions | Also tagged , , , , , , | Comments (0)

Analects of the Core: Descartes on quality in the flame

November 29, 2012 at 5:28 pm

Relating to the reading that the students of CC201 have done on Descartes’ work, here is today’s analect: Although in approaching the flame I feel heat, and even though in approaching it a little too closely I feel pain, there is still no reason that can convince me that there is some quality in the […]

By mdimov | Posted in Analects, Curriculum, Great Personalities, Uncategorized | Also tagged , , , | Comments (0)

Analects of the Core: Descartes on plausible philosophy

December 1, 2010 at 5:19 pm

Je ne dirai rien de la philosophie, sinon que, voyant qu’elle a été cultivée par les plus excellents esprits qui aient vécu depuis plusieurs siècles, et que néanmoins il ne s’y trouve encore aucune chose dont on ne dispute, et par conséquent qui ne soit douteuse, je n’avois point assez de présomption pour espérer d’y […]

By CAS Core Curriculum | Posted in Analects | Also tagged , , , , | Comments (0)

Analects of the Core: Descartes on questioning existence

October 13, 2010 at 10:00 am

CC201 students will soon be discussing one of the foundations of Western discussions of knowledge, relying on the fact that the mind necessarily exists if it can question its own existence: Cogito ergo sum. “I think, therefore I am.” – René Descartes, Discourse on Methods and Meditations Read up some more context for Descartes and […]

By CAS Core Curriculum | Posted in Analects | Also tagged , , , | Comments (0)