René Descartes gets into his stove for a purpose

It was cold and raw that day in 1610 when a French mathematician named Rene Descartes pulled his cloak around him and climbed into the side compartment of a large stove.  Descartes had been wrestling for weeks with questions of doubt and reason in his search for some certainty of a philosophical system.  As he warmed himself in his stove, his imagination began glowing with the light of reason, and he resolved to doubt everything that could possibly be doubted.

Hours later, Descartes emerged, having determined that there was only one thing he could not doubt, and that was the fact that he doubted.  A good day’s work.  Descartes drew the conclusion, Cogito, ergo Sum.  “I think, therefore I am.”   Then he went out for a cognac.

–from Against the Night by Charles Colson

One thought on “René Descartes gets into his stove for a purpose”

  1. The modern American philosopher (and avid amateur of the flying trapeze!), Sam Keen, formulates Descartes’s insight thusly:

    “Dubito ergo sum” –

    Or, “I doubt, therefore I am”. Which kind of throws a new light on the matter – at least for me…

    For more on Sam Keen, see:

    http://www.samkeen.com/

    NB: The above quote is from his book, “Fire in the Belly”.

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