In his landmark works Discourse on the Method (1637) and Meditations on First Philosophy (1641), René Descartes tackled a simple yet imposing question: how can one know anything for certain? Laid out in methodical detail, his answers would provide the foundation for modern philosophy and science. In this video from 1987, the celebrated UK broadcaster and philosophy populariser Bryan Magee (1930-2019) dissects Descartes’s world-changing writings alongside the UK philosopher and Descartes scholar Bernard Williams (1929-2003). In doing so, the pair touches on how the existence of God was fundamental to Descartes’s construction of the Universe, what precisely he meant in proclaiming ‘I think, therefore I am’, and which of his ideas have fallen out of fashion in contemporary philosophy.
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Metaphysics
Bertrand Russell wanted to kill off causation. Can contemporary philosophy rescue it?
8 minutes
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Ethics
How many monkeys is it worth sacrificing to save a human life?
6 minutes
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Human rights and justice
Thirty years after one teenager shot another, is it time to forgive?
28 minutes
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Chemistry
A square inch in a Petri dish becomes a grand stage for chemical transformations
4 minutes
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Virtues and vices
From violent criminal to loving parent – a son’s story of his father’s transformation
23 minutes
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Ageing and death
When his elderly parents make a suicide pact, Doron struggles to accept their choice
19 minutes
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Knowledge
Yes, the Inuit have dozens of words for snow – but what does each one mean exactly?
6 minutes
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History of science
How one of history’s most beautiful books was used to find fate in the cosmos
6 minutes
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Evolution
Symmetry rules life on Earth – but it comes with many fascinating exceptions
9 minutes