This is philosophy bites with me David Edmonds and me Nigel Warburton.

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It's arguably the most famous phrase in philosophy,

Cogito Ergo Sum, and its author René Descartes is often described

as the founder of modern philosophy.

Descartes was born in France but ceased both to think and to exist in Sweden where his

death was probably due to pneumonia.

The Swedish Queen Christina made him get up at 5 a.m. to tutor her. Here to discuss Daycott's famous

phrase is A.C. Graling, author of a recent biography of Day Cart.

Anthony Graling, welcome to Philosophy Bites.

Great pleasure to be here.

The topic I want to focus on today is Descartes Kojito.

But before we get on to that, perhaps you could say a little bit about who Descartes and

the times in which he lived.

Well, Nay Descartes is a very, very important figure in the history of modern philosophy

and indeed in the history of modern thought in general.

He was born in 1596, he died in 1650, so he lives in the first half of the 17th century which is an

amazingly important time for the development of the natural sciences and for what

owing largely to de cart himself was a revolution in philosophical thought. He also lived through a period

of Great Tumout in Europe, the 30 years war, which was a fundamentally war of religion,

an attempt by the Catholic Habsburg dynasty to reclaim Europe for the Catholic

...