Descartes's Stove

Descartes's Stove(bloomsburyliterarystudiesblog.com)

36 points by Vigier 2 years ago | 15 comments

baking 2 years ago |

I was taught that he climbed inside a large brick oven, which is what he literally says. Alone with his thoughts inside a quiet oven. I mean, it is the middle of winter and if other soldiers also wanted to stay warm, don't you think a heated room would be more crowded?

jimt1234 2 years ago |

I majored in philosophy. Descartes is at the center of the only philosophy joke I ever heard.

Socrates, Kant and Descartes were sitting in a bar, talking about baseball:

- Socrates: Dodgers are gonna win it all this year. They're unstoppable.

- Kant: Totally agree. Betts, Ohtani, Freeman. Go Dodgers. What do you think, Rene?

- Descartes: Well, they have the hitting, but I don't think [Poof! Descartes disappears.]

082349872349872 2 years ago | |

The various anecdotes[0] about Diogenes are almost nothing but jokes[1]; he used humanity as his straight man.

— Not the Diogenes? I have been looking for you... I am Alexander, king of Macedon, called by some "the Great"; do you have any boon you wish to ask of me?

— Yes: please move a little to the left. You're standing in my sun.

[0] https://penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/encyclopaedia_romana/gr...

[1] compare Moore's The Comedian? "It came true. You're lookin' at it."

ses1984 2 years ago | |

Here are two more for you.

Sartre is sitting at a cafe and orders coffee with no cream. The waiter says, "I'm sorry, Monsieur Sartre, we are all out of cream -- how about with no milk?"

man goes to bertrand russell. says he hates his beard but will not shave it. russell says "treatment is simple. great barber pagliacci is in town. he will shave all men (and only those men) who will not shave themselves." man bursts into tears. "but bertrand,"

AdamN 2 years ago | | |

Descartes sits down in his seat on an airplane and the steward asks, "would you like some tea?", to which Descartes replies, "I think not" and poof!, he disappears out of existence.

actionfromafar 2 years ago | | |

I could use an explanation of the last one.

aidenn0 2 years ago | |

Assuming the converse is really putting Descartes in front of the horse.

Propelloni 2 years ago | |

This is a good occasion to pitch the sublime https://existentialcomics.com/comic/1

getwiththeprog 2 years ago | |

This may have been why Descartes preferred the French formulation of the cogito Je Suis, Je Exist.

_a_a_a_ 2 years ago |

"Analytic geometry represents space as a vacuum oriented by abstract coordinates and occasionally inhabited by bodies, not as an atmosphere already filled with airborne materials of varying composition, density, temperature, and velocity."

Deep stuff.

AdamN 2 years ago |

This also makes me think about Descartes' ball of wax - which he handled while pondering the Great Deceiver. One of his great writing techniques was to bring the reader to the room where he was writing at that moment in time.