Rene Descartes (1596–1650) is the author of perhaps the most famous philosophical quote of all, cogito ergo sum, usually rendered as I think, therefore I am. There is however more to this quote, and ...

Smack bang in the middle of your brain sits a tiny structure called the pineal gland, which has puzzled neuroscientists and ...

The pineal gland, a reddish-gray, pine cone-shaped part of the brain, is unremarkable at first glance: It’s about a third of an inch long and tucked deep in the brain, near the center and between both ...

The artful protagonists of The Moving Statues of Seventeenth-Century Amsterdam are witty enchantments, products of active imaginations whose disappearance requires further imaginative action.

Philip Ball goes back to the 17th Century to tell the story of Descartes and his "daughter". Show more There's a story told about French philosopher René Descartes and his daughter. He boards a ship ...

Rene Descartes (1596-1650) was a brilliant philosopher, mathematician, and scientist. Most scholars consider him responsible for modern medicine’s splitting the mind and mental issues away from the ...

THIS is a reprint—“nouvelle édition” it calls itself—of the great work of Descartes, giving the first exposition (such as it is) of the system of co-ordinate geometry since known as “Cartesian.” The ...

Philosophy is often thought of as being detached from “real life”. The greatest philosophers, though, sought to grasp the nature of human beings and their place in the universe, and gave guidance on ...

There are many stories about French philosopher Rene Descartes' mysterious 'daughter'. Philip Ball explores these stories and ask what they tell us about what it is to be human. Show more There's a ...