A Companion to Descartes

Probably the most famous argument in philosophy is that, in order to think, we need to exist, we infer then that we think, and therefore we exist. The philosopher Descartes (1596‐1650) (hence Cartesian) put the argument and got us thinking about thinking, epistemologically and ontologically, ever since. We remember him for his methodological exploration of knowing and validating knowledge and of what it is to be a thinking being. Others raised such questions, earlier and at the time and later, for not even Mozart is without context. His analysis was part of a larger inquiry into maths and optics, and...