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#descartes — Public Fediverse posts

Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #descartes, aggregated by home.social.

  1. Warum es das Butterbrot ist, das den Menschen ausmacht

    Ich glaube, es gibt eine zentrale Fähigkeit, die uns sowohl vom Tier, als auch von der KI unterscheidet. Mehr noch: Diese Fähigkeit ist tief in unserem Alltag verwurzelt. Und: Sie hat mit Butterbroten zu tun. Ich habe Ihnen dazu, wie jede Woche, ein kleines #Denkwerkzeug bereitgelegt.

    matthiaszehnder.ch/wochenkomme

    #Menschsein #Philosophie #KünstlicheIntelligenz #KI #Descartes #Wittgenstein #Anthropologie #Digitalisierung #Denkanstoss

  2. Warum es das Butterbrot ist, das den Menschen ausmacht

    Ich glaube, es gibt eine zentrale Fähigkeit, die uns sowohl vom Tier, als auch von der KI unterscheidet. Mehr noch: Diese Fähigkeit ist tief in unserem Alltag verwurzelt. Und: Sie hat mit Butterbroten zu tun. Ich habe Ihnen dazu, wie jede Woche, ein kleines #Denkwerkzeug bereitgelegt.

    matthiaszehnder.ch/wochenkomme

    #Menschsein #Philosophie #KünstlicheIntelligenz #KI #Descartes #Wittgenstein #Anthropologie #Digitalisierung #Denkanstoss

  3. „Cogito, ergo sum“ – welche kreativen Varianten René #Descartes​’ berühmte #latein​ische Wendung hervorrief, lesen Sie im Artikel des Tages dwds.de/wb/cogito%2C%20ergo%20

  4. “A World Appears”, by Michael Pollan, is a tour de force recounting of the current state of our millennia-long attempts to define and explain #consciousness. Since Plato’s cave (and likely before that) thru #Descartes’ misguided duality, to today’s attempts at #AGI, we’ve made some progress, but really there is still no consensus on what it is and how it happens. Pollan covers it all clearly and concisely. #recommended #bookstodon

  5. #VendrediLecture le très beau roman d'Elisha 🦋 _la Sourcière de Dieu_

    La renaissance qui bouleverse les valeurs de toustes, vue à travers la vie de Justine et de Gervais : deux ami-es d'enfance séparé-es par les contraintes de leur temps cheminent pourtant en parallèle avec l'amour, la foi, le lien au vivant naturel... et les déchirements de la chrétienté, et ce tournant rationaliste de la pensée occidentale #Bacon #Descartes etc.
    Entre #sorcellerie et #sainteté - qui décide ?

    Morceau choisi sur le site de "Vivre reliés" (#spiritualité #écologie ...)
    vivrerelies.org/philipb/Plaido

  6. #VendrediLecture le très beau roman d'Elisha 🦋 _la Sourcière de Dieu_

    La renaissance qui bouleverse les valeurs de toustes, vue à travers la vie de Justine et de Gervais : deux ami-es d'enfance séparé-es par les contraintes de leur temps cheminent pourtant en parallèle avec l'amour, la foi, le lien au vivant naturel... et les déchirements de la chrétienté, et ce tournant rationaliste de la pensée occidentale #Bacon #Descartes etc.
    Entre #sorcellerie et #sainteté - qui décide ?

    Morceau choisi sur le site de "Vivre reliés" (#spiritualité #écologie ...)
    vivrerelies.org/philipb/Plaido

  7. #VendrediLecture le très beau roman d'Elisha 🦋 _la Sourcière de Dieu_

    La renaissance qui bouleverse les valeurs de toustes, vue à travers la vie de Justine et de Gervais : deux ami-es d'enfance séparé-es par les contraintes de leur temps cheminent pourtant en parallèle avec l'amour, la foi, le lien au vivant naturel... et les déchirements de la chrétienté, et ce tournant rationaliste de la pensée occidentale #Bacon #Descartes etc.
    Entre #sorcellerie et #sainteté - qui décide ?

    Morceau choisi sur le site de "Vivre reliés" (#spiritualité #écologie ...)
    vivrerelies.org/philipb/Plaido

  8. #VendrediLecture le très beau roman d'Elisha 🦋 _la Sourcière de Dieu_

    La renaissance qui bouleverse les valeurs de toustes, vue à travers la vie de Justine et de Gervais : deux ami-es d'enfance séparé-es par les contraintes de leur temps cheminent pourtant en parallèle avec l'amour, la foi, le lien au vivant naturel... et les déchirements de la chrétienté, et ce tournant rationaliste de la pensée occidentale #Bacon #Descartes etc.
    Entre #sorcellerie et #sainteté - qui décide ?

    Morceau choisi sur le site de "Vivre reliés" (#spiritualité #écologie ...)
    vivrerelies.org/philipb/Plaido

  9. #VendrediLecture le très beau roman d'Elisha 🦋 _la Sourcière de Dieu_

    La renaissance qui bouleverse les valeurs de toustes, vue à travers la vie de Justine et de Gervais : deux ami-es d'enfance séparé-es par les contraintes de leur temps cheminent pourtant en parallèle avec l'amour, la foi, le lien au vivant naturel... et les déchirements de la chrétienté, et ce tournant rationaliste de la pensée occidentale #Bacon #Descartes etc.
    Entre #sorcellerie et #sainteté - qui décide ?

    Morceau choisi sur le site de "Vivre reliés" (#spiritualité #écologie ...)
    vivrerelies.org/philipb/Plaido

  10. Evangelista Torricelli’s (1608–47) solid is defined by rotating the hyperbola $y = 1/x$ about the $x$ axis and truncating it at $x=1$ (see attached image).

    It has infinite length and infinite surface area but finite volume.

    This counter-intuitive discovery caused philosophical disturbance, for it seemed to violate the distinction between finite and infinite.

    Torricelli, foreseeing the scrutiny to which his work would be subjected, took the precaution of preempting some criticisms by supplying two different proofs, one by ‘indivisibles’, one by exhaustion.

    But René Descartes (1596–1650) seems not to have been provoked to any philosophical objections and thought that Torricelli's discovery was beautiful.

    Henry Needler (fl. 1690–1718), a perhaps slightly obscure figure who foreshadowed 18th-century discussions of the sublime, seemed to be impressed by the solid's ‘Grandeur and Magnificence’ and thought that it would ‘afford the greatest Delight and Satisfaction to curious Minds’.

    (Today, Torricelli's solid is also called ‘Gabriel's horn’ or ‘Torricelli's trumpet’.)

    1/2

    #infinite #Descartes #HistMath #HistPhil #Torricelli #MathematicalBeauty #sublime #aesthetics

  11. Evangelista Torricelli’s (1608–47) solid is defined by rotating the hyperbola $y = 1/x$ about the $x$ axis and truncating it at $x=1$ (see attached image).

    It has infinite length and infinite surface area but finite volume.

    This counter-intuitive discovery caused philosophical disturbance, for it seemed to violate the distinction between finite and infinite.

    Torricelli, foreseeing the scrutiny to which his work would be subjected, took the precaution of preempting some criticisms by supplying two different proofs, one by ‘indivisibles’, one by exhaustion.

    But René Descartes (1596–1650) seems not to have been provoked to any philosophical objections and thought that Torricelli's discovery was beautiful.

    Henry Needler (fl. 1690–1718), a perhaps slightly obscure figure who foreshadowed 18th-century discussions of the sublime, seemed to be impressed by the solid's ‘Grandeur and Magnificence’ and thought that it would ‘afford the greatest Delight and Satisfaction to curious Minds’.

    (Today, Torricelli's solid is also called ‘Gabriel's horn’ or ‘Torricelli's trumpet’.)

    1/2

    #infinite #Descartes #HistMath #HistPhil #Torricelli #MathematicalBeauty #sublime #aesthetics

  12. Evangelista Torricelli’s (1608–47) solid is defined by rotating the hyperbola $y = 1/x$ about the $x$ axis and truncating it at $x=1$ (see attached image).

    It has infinite length and infinite surface area but finite volume.

    This counter-intuitive discovery caused philosophical disturbance, for it seemed to violate the distinction between finite and infinite.

    Torricelli, foreseeing the scrutiny to which his work would be subjected, took the precaution of preempting some criticisms by supplying two different proofs, one by ‘indivisibles’, one by exhaustion.

    But René Descartes (1596–1650) seems not to have been provoked to any philosophical objections and thought that Torricelli's discovery was beautiful.

    Henry Needler (fl. 1690–1718), a perhaps slightly obscure figure who foreshadowed 18th-century discussions of the sublime, seemed to be impressed by the solid's ‘Grandeur and Magnificence’ and thought that it would ‘afford the greatest Delight and Satisfaction to curious Minds’.

    (Today, Torricelli's solid is also called ‘Gabriel's horn’ or ‘Torricelli's trumpet’.)

    1/2

    #infinite #Descartes #HistMath #HistPhil #Torricelli #MathematicalBeauty #sublime #aesthetics

  13. Evangelista Torricelli’s (1608–47) solid is defined by rotating the hyperbola $y = 1/x$ about the $x$ axis and truncating it at $x=1$ (see attached image).

    It has infinite length and infinite surface area but finite volume.

    This counter-intuitive discovery caused philosophical disturbance, for it seemed to violate the distinction between finite and infinite.

    Torricelli, foreseeing the scrutiny to which his work would be subjected, took the precaution of preempting some criticisms by supplying two different proofs, one by ‘indivisibles’, one by exhaustion.

    But René Descartes (1596–1650) seems not to have been provoked to any philosophical objections and thought that Torricelli's discovery was beautiful.

    Henry Needler (fl. 1690–1718), a perhaps slightly obscure figure who foreshadowed 18th-century discussions of the sublime, seemed to be impressed by the solid's ‘Grandeur and Magnificence’ and thought that it would ‘afford the greatest Delight and Satisfaction to curious Minds’.

    (Today, Torricelli's solid is also called ‘Gabriel's horn’ or ‘Torricelli's trumpet’.)

    1/2

    #infinite #Descartes #HistMath #HistPhil #Torricelli #MathematicalBeauty #sublime #aesthetics

  14. Evangelista Torricelli’s (1608–47) solid is defined by rotating the hyperbola $y = 1/x$ about the $x$ axis and truncating it at $x=1$ (see attached image).

    It has infinite length and infinite surface area but finite volume.

    This counter-intuitive discovery caused philosophical disturbance, for it seemed to violate the distinction between finite and infinite.

    Torricelli, foreseeing the scrutiny to which his work would be subjected, took the precaution of preempting some criticisms by supplying two different proofs, one by ‘indivisibles’, one by exhaustion.

    But René Descartes (1596–1650) seems not to have been provoked to any philosophical objections and thought that Torricelli's discovery was beautiful.

    Henry Needler (fl. 1690–1718), a perhaps slightly obscure figure who foreshadowed 18th-century discussions of the sublime, seemed to be impressed by the solid's ‘Grandeur and Magnificence’ and thought that it would ‘afford the greatest Delight and Satisfaction to curious Minds’.

    (Today, Torricelli's solid is also called ‘Gabriel's horn’ or ‘Torricelli's trumpet’.)

    1/2

    #infinite #Descartes #HistMath #HistPhil #Torricelli #MathematicalBeauty #sublime #aesthetics

  15. The Question of Life - Blade Runner
    After watching the movie, I wrote a brief reflection on the theme of what is life? What makes a human different from other forms of life? Do we afford plants and other animals the same rights as we do for humans? Of course not. But why not? Since a replicant in the movie looks and acts as an adult human, although a machine, do they get rights? Read on ... listed.to/@lifesjourney/69394/
    #life #philosophy #bladerunner #Descartes

  16. Today's new #HoPWaG episode: www.historyofphilosophy.net/arnauld-jansenism Antoine Arnauld combines Cartesian philosophy with Jansenism, one of the most controversial religious movements of the 17th century. #philosophy #philsky #podcast #christianity #descartes #arnauld

  17. Want to unlock your inner genius? This series on Polymaths explore a non-zero-sum approach to innovation. The third and final part dropped today! #Polymath #Genius #Descartes #Newton #Musk #CrossPollination #TransferableSkills #Fails #Success #Obsidian

    WHAT ABOUT US?

  18. Want to unlock your inner genius? This series on Polymaths explore a non-zero-sum approach to innovation. The third and final part dropped today! #Polymath #Genius #Descartes #Newton #Musk #CrossPollination #TransferableSkills #Fails #Success #Obsidian

    WHAT ABOUT US?

  19. Want to unlock your inner genius? This series on Polymaths explore a non-zero-sum approach to innovation. The third and final part dropped today! #Polymath #Genius #Descartes #Newton #Musk #CrossPollination #TransferableSkills #Fails #Success #Obsidian

    WHAT ABOUT US?

  20. Want to unlock your inner genius? This series on Polymaths explore a non-zero-sum approach to innovation. The third and final part dropped today! #Polymath #Genius #Descartes #Newton #Musk #CrossPollination #TransferableSkills #Fails #Success #Obsidian

    WHAT ABOUT US?

  21. F. Teroni suit pas à pas les Méditations de #Descartes, sans craindre d’en relever les insuffisances en retournant l’arme du doute contre lui et en le confrontant aux débats contemporains
    laviedesidees.fr/Teroni-L-ombr

  22. Article # 155 – Que veut dire penser ? Arabes et Latins, Jean-Baptiste Brenet, Rivages poche – Petite Bibliothèque, 2025.

    J'ai lu pour vous Que veut dire penser ? Arabes et Latin de Jean-Baptiste Brenet, philosophe et professeur à l'université Paris-I-Sorbonne, publié en 2022 au Éditions Payot & Rivages et en 2025 pour l'édition de poche. C'est de cette dernière édition dont je fais ici mon rapport de lecture. Menu de cette page Couvertures Données au catalogue Texte de présentation (Quatrième de couverture) Sommaire Extraits de l’œuvre Au sujet de l'auteur Du même auteur Revue […]

    philotherapie.ca/2026/01/12/ar

  23. There is no escaping Descartes' Daemon.

    Descartes' own cogito falters quickly.

    The first part seems reasonable - you can't be fooled if there is no "you" to fool. But this doesn't lead anywhere - it is not possible to say anything about what that "you" is, except a sensory nexus (a focus for streams of sensory information, whatever their source may be). That's as far as that trail will ever go.

    What else can we do then?

    Well, we could assert a Null Hypothesis of the type "the world is as it seems".

    But this quickly leads to empiricism, which then quickly leads to a contradiction: The world is not as it seems. "What it seems" is actually percepts, meaning imposed by the brain on sensory data of unknowable origin (we see it only through stained glass, and we have no way of comprehending it uncut).
    For instance, we know that "color" is not actually there. We know that light doesn't "look like anything" except as interpreted by our vision center. We know that pressure waves in air or water don't "sound like anything" without interpretation in our auditory center.

    We're back to the sensory nexus.

    The egocentric predicament is intractable.

    However, since our method so far has not been deductive ("the world is as it seems" is an iherently inductive hypothesis), the conclusion is resistant to contradiction: It can be modified to "the world is there, but we can only observe it as filtered through the sense-making of our minds. E.g. It either has no colors at all, or it has a near-infinity of them, which we don't know how to interpret".

    The demon, or the brain-in-a-vat issue remains, as indeed does the "infinitely-colored universe as seen by an ape with limited color perception" issue.

    That's rock bottom for us.

    Each of us is trapped in a mental model of an external universe, and these mental models probably do not overlap (unless we believe in some sort of magic - but this goes against the world being somewhat like it seems).

    That means that nothing is objective, even in the "intersubjective" sense. Through what medium could an intersubject exist? Our conversations are fragmented into idiosyncratic reflections, one for each subject. My experience of what you told me, your experience of what I told you. And never the twain shall meet.

    #Philosophy #Descartes #Putnam #BrainInAVat #CartesianDaemonology

  24. "I think, therefore I am. But I overthink, therefore I have anxiety. Descartes forgot to calculate this part of the equation."
    #PhilosophyHumor #Descartes #Overthinking #Relatable #MentalHealth #Humor #Philosophy #Funny

  25. @SabiLewSounds @kshernandez

    I'm struggling to remember time, but I think it was last night? We read about #Descartes. It shows how views on animals relates to YT supremacist views and by someone spoke of so highly by so many academics. Add to this the grossness that generally, humans view predators as more being more worthy of care. It's disgusting.

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_m

    philosophynow.org/issues/108/D

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speciesi

    news.berkeley.edu/2023/01/09/s

  26. Today on #HoPWaG we're joined by Gideon Manning to hear about medicine in Descartes and amongst the Cartesians! A fascinating discussion of method, dualism, the circulatory system, and much more. www.historyofphilosophy.net/cartesian-me... #philsky #descartes #philosophy #podcast

  27. I've always found the #Descartes proof that he exists quite neat:

    Dubito, ergo cogito. Cogito, ergo sum.
    (I doubt, which means I think. I think, which means I am).

    But this morning, I realised it's easily invalidated.
    If you add:
    Scio, ergo non dubito (I know, which means I do not doubt)
    to the original chain of reasoning, and then shorten it, you get:
    Dubito, [...] ergo non dubito (I doubt, which means I do not doubt).

    (I don't know if this argument has already been made...)

    #philosphy

  28. We're back from summer break! In today's new #podcast Ariane Schneck joins me to discuss the correspondence between Elisabeth of Bohemia and Descartes, focusing on the mind-body problem and the passions. www.historyofphilosophy.net/descartes-el... #philsky #descartes #mindbodyproblem

  29. Der #Diskurs der #Philosophie – eine kleine #Reise durch die #Philosophiegeschichte
    Start

    „1. Stopp – bei den ollen #Griechen in Athen und Umgebung“, „2. Stopp – beim meditierenden #Descartes in Ulm“, „3. Stopp – in Königsberg bei #Kant, dem ein Licht aufgeht“, „4. Stopp – kleiner Abstecher nach Nizza zum alles negierenden #Nietzsche“ und dann zum Schluss „5. Suche nach einer weiteren #Station“.

    Wenn Sie weiterfahren wollen: philosophies.de/index.php/2025

  30. The #discourse of #philosophy - a short #journey through the #history of #philosophy

    Start

    “1st stop - at the old #Greeks in Athens and surroundings”, “2nd stop - at the meditating #Descartes in Ulm”, “3rd stop - in Königsberg at #Kant, who sees the light”, “4th stop - short detour to Nice to the all-negating #Nietzsche” and then finally “5th search for another #station”.

    If you want to continue: philosophies.de/index.php/2025

  31. The #discourse of #philosophy - a short #journey through the #history of #philosophy

    Start

    “1st stop - at the old #Greeks in Athens and surroundings”, “2nd stop - at the meditating #Descartes in Ulm”, “3rd stop - in Königsberg at #Kant, who sees the light”, “4th stop - short detour to Nice to the all-negating #Nietzsche” and then finally “5th search for another #station”.

    If you want to continue: philosophies.de/index.php/2025

    #Philosophy #HistoryOfPhilosophy #MichelFoucault #DiscourseAnalysis #Science #Humanities #CriticalThinking #ThinkingAboutTheFuture #SocialChange #Essay #ThinkingAboutChange #Humanities #AcademicThinking #Interdisciplinarity #ResearchAndTeaching

  32. The #discourse of #philosophy - a short #journey through the #history of #philosophy

    Start

    “1st stop - at the old #Greeks in Athens and surroundings”, “2nd stop - at the meditating #Descartes in Ulm”, “3rd stop - in Königsberg at #Kant, who sees the light”, “4th stop - short detour to Nice to the all-negating #Nietzsche” and then finally “5th search for another #station”.

    If you want to continue: philosophies.de/index.php/2025

    #Philosophy #HistoryOfPhilosophy #MichelFoucault #DiscourseAnalysis #Science #Humanities #CriticalThinking #ThinkingAboutTheFuture #SocialChange #Essay #ThinkingAboutChange #Humanities #AcademicThinking #Interdisciplinarity #ResearchAndTeaching

  33. The #discourse of #philosophy - a short #journey through the #history of #philosophy

    Start

    “1st stop - at the old #Greeks in Athens and surroundings”, “2nd stop - at the meditating #Descartes in Ulm”, “3rd stop - in Königsberg at #Kant, who sees the light”, “4th stop - short detour to Nice to the all-negating #Nietzsche” and then finally “5th search for another #station”.

    If you want to continue: philosophies.de/index.php/2025

    #Philosophy #HistoryOfPhilosophy #MichelFoucault #DiscourseAnalysis #Science #Humanities #CriticalThinking #ThinkingAboutTheFuture #SocialChange #Essay #ThinkingAboutChange #Humanities #AcademicThinking #Interdisciplinarity #ResearchAndTeaching

  34. Der #Diskurs der #Philosophie – eine kleine #Reise durch die #Philosophiegeschichte
    Start

    „1. Stopp – bei den ollen #Griechen in Athen und Umgebung“, „2. Stopp – beim meditierenden #Descartes in Ulm“, „3. Stopp – in Königsberg bei #Kant, dem ein Licht aufgeht“, „4. Stopp – kleiner Abstecher nach Nizza zum alles negierenden #Nietzsche“ und dann zum Schluss „5. Suche nach einer weiteren #Station“.

    Wenn Sie weiterfahren wollen: philosophies.de/index.php/2025

    #Philosophie #Philosophiegeschichte #MichelFoucault #Diskursanalyse #Wissenschaft #Geisteswissenschaften #KritischesDenken #ZukunftDenken #GesellschaftlicherWandel #Essay #DenkenImWandel #Humanities #AkademischesDenken #Interdisziplinarität #ForschungUndLehre

  35. The #discourse of #philosophy - a short #journey through the #history of #philosophy

    Start

    “1st stop - at the old #Greeks in Athens and surroundings”, “2nd stop - at the meditating #Descartes in Ulm”, “3rd stop - in Königsberg at #Kant, who sees the light”, “4th stop - short detour to Nice to the all-negating #Nietzsche” and then finally “5th search for another #station”.

    If you want to continue: philosophies.de/index.php/2025

  36. Der #Diskurs der #Philosophie – eine kleine Reise durch die #Philosophiegeschichte
    Start

    „1. Stopp – bei den ollen #Griechen in Athen und Umgebung“, „2. Stopp – beim meditierenden #Descartes in Ulm“, „3. Stopp – in Königsberg bei #Kant, dem ein Licht aufgeht“, „4. Stopp – kleiner Abstecher nach Nizza zum alles negierenden #Nietzsche“ und dann zum Schluss „5. Suche nach einer weiteren #Station“.

    Wenn Sie weiterfahren wollen: philosophies.de/index.php/2025