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Doubt is the origin of wisdom.

René Descartes (attributed)

Philosophy

The story behind the card

The line is not found in Descartes's writings, but it sums up his method well. René Descartes (1596–1650) was a French philosopher and mathematician. In the Discourse on Method (1637) and the Meditations on First Philosophy (1641), he set out to doubt everything that could be doubted: his senses, mathematics, even the outside world. One thing survived: while he doubts, he is thinking, so he must exist. He put it as ‘I think, therefore I am’ and rebuilt the rest of knowledge from there. Doubt used as a tool became a starting point of modern philosophy.

Türkçe oku
Şüphe, bilgeliğin kaynağıdır.
René Descartes (atfedilir)

Bu cümle Descartes'ın yazılarında geçmez, ama yöntemini iyi özetler. René Descartes (1596–1650) Fransız filozof ve matematikçiydi. Yöntem Üzerine Konuşma (1637) ve İlk Felsefe Üzerine Meditasyonlar (1641) adlı eserlerinde kuşku duyulabilecek her şeyden kuşku duymaya girişti: duyularından, matematikten, hatta dış dünyanın varlığından. Geriye tek bir şey kaldı: Kuşku duyan kişi düşünüyordur, düşünen de var olmalıdır. Descartes bunu “Düşünüyorum, öyleyse varım” diye özetledi ve bütün bilgiyi bu sağlam noktanın üzerine yeniden kurdu. Böylece bir araç olarak kullanılan kuşku, modern felsefenin çıkış noktalarından biri oldu.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: René Descartes
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