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Descartes in 90 Minutes by Paul Strathern
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Descartes in 90 Minutes

$6.26

Retail price: $6.95

Discount: 9%

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Narrator Simon Vance

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Length 1 hour 17 minutes
Language English
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René Descartes spent much of his life in solitude. Fortunately, these countless lonely hours helped Descartes produce the declaration that changed all philosophy: “I think, therefore I am.” Convincing himself to doubt and disregard sensory knowledge, Descartes found he could prove his existence through his thoughts alone. This internal reality, he believed, was the true reality, while the external was hopelessly deceiving.

In Descartes in 90 Minutes, Paul Strathern offers a concise, expert account of Descartes’s life and ideas and explains their influence on man’s struggle to understand his existence in the world. The book also includes selections from Descartes’s work, a brief list of suggested readings for those who wish to delve deeper, and chronologies that place Descartes within his own age and in the broader scheme of philosophy.

Paul Strathern earned a degree in philosophy at Trinity College, Dublin, and has lectured in philosophy and mathematics. The author of many nonfiction books and of articles for numerous publications, he has also written several novels and has won the Somerset Maugham Prize. He lives and writes in London.

Simon Vance is a critically acclaimed narrator who has recorded over eight hundred audiobooks and has received over fifty Earphones Awards. A twelve-time Audie Award winner and frequent finalist, he has been named an AudioFile Golden Voice, an AudioFile Best Voice, and the first Booklist Voice of Choice. A former BBC Radio presenter and newsreader in London, he currently lives in California, where he also pursues stage and television acting.

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Reviews

“Well-written, clear, and informed, they have a breezy wit about them. I find them hard to stop reading.”

“Witty, illuminating, and blessedly concise.”

“Each of these little books is witty and dramatic and creates a sense of time, place, and character…I cannot think of a better way to introduce oneself and one’s friends to Western civilization.”

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