Descartes
Am I alone in thinking?
‘Et remarquant que cette vérité, je pense, donc je suis, était si ferme et si assurée, que toutes les plus…
The problem of consciousness
Given the ingenuity of machine-makers, said Descartes in the 17th century, machines might well be constructed that exactly resemble humans.…
Mysticism and metamorphosis
‘I frankly hate Descartes,’ states a character in Nicole Krauss’s new novel, Forest Dark: ‘The more he talks about following…
Guardians of an ideal
The French have always favoured grand, elegant abstractions about the human condition, says Ruth Scurr. It’s part of their national identity
Running around with Marx
Thomas R. Flynn has written an avowedly ‘intellectual biography’ of Jean-Paul Sartre, which might seem fitting. Sartre was nothing if…
The real dilemma of artificial intelligence
Having written (for a Times diary) a few sentences about consciousness in robots, I settled back to study readers’ responses…
