The Consequences of Ideas — Season 1, Episode 15: Descartes
Documentary • 23 min • 1 season, 35 episodes
Episode synopsis
With all the opposing ideas in the world, how do you know which ones are right? How do know your thoughts are any closer to the truth than someone else's? Are you sure you thought your thoughts through with absolute certainty? Before you think another thought, you need to know where to begin your thought. Where's that, you ask? Seventeenth-century philosopher Descartes suggests you begin by doubting. Continuing this study of philosophy and its consequences in our lives, Dr. Sproul teaches us about the age of rationalism and its effects in our own time as he looks at Descartes.
About The Consequences of Ideas
To understand the culture in which we live, you need to be familiar with the ideas that have shaped it. In Ligonier's survey series, The Consequences of Ideas, R.C. Sproul traces the contours of Western philosophy throughout history and shows how our culture evolved to what it is today. From ancient Greek thinkers like Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle to Christian philosophers such as Augustine, Anselm and Aquinas to the shapers of modern thought such as Hume, Kant and Nietzsche, R.C. demonstrates the consequences of each of these and other important thinkers' ideas on world events, theology, the fine arts and culture, as well as our everyday lives. Listen, and you will hear echoes of their ideas in your daily conversations—especially as you witness to unbelievers.