Descartes
What exactly do we mean by the mind?
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…
Liberty, philosophy and 246 types of cheese
The French have always favoured grand, elegant abstractions about the human condition, says Ruth Scurr. It’s part of their national identity
Jean-Paul Sartre was perhaps the 20th century’s most famous thinker - if you can get beyond the verbiage
Thomas R. Flynn has written an avowedly ‘intellectual biography’ of Jean-Paul Sartre, which might seem fitting. Sartre was nothing if…
The surer we are that machines can think, the less sure we'll be about people
Having written (for a Times diary) a few sentences about consciousness in robots, I settled back to study readers’ responses…
