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Descartes: An Introduction
- Narrated by: Jonathan Oliver, Roy McMillan
- Length: 5 hrs and 12 mins
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Editorial reviews
Ross Burman's Descartes: An Introduction serves as a strong, concise point of access for beginner philosophers seeking to explore the basics of René Descartes' life, writings, and long-term impacts on the field. This audiobook combines textual excerpts with explanation, explication, and ideological deconstruction.
Voice actors Jonathan Oliver and Roy McMillan perform this introductory work, and succeed very admirably in spicing up what could quite easily, in the wrong hands, have become a flat and undimensional production. Oliver and McMillan's lively readings breathe life in Descartes' abstract philosophy, making this audiobook easy to follow and enjoyably informative.
Publisher's summary
René Descartes is one of the formative figures in Western philosophy, logic and mathematics. His famous statement: "I think, therefore I am," has become perhaps the most famous phrase in all of philosophy. Descartes’s ground-breaking writings attempted to establish unshakeable foundations of knowledge, and set a trend for subsequent Western philosophy, which has endlessly critiqued and expanded upon his ideas.
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What listeners say about Descartes: An Introduction
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Amazon Customer
- 06-19-15
Very Nice Overview
What made the experience of listening to Descartes: An Introduction the most enjoyable?
The clarity of the man's thoughts are breathtaking, even after all these centuries! It's well read and the commentary is very good.
What does Jonathan Oliver and Roy McMillan bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?
The book is brilliantly read but, truth be told, I mostly listen in the car and that would simply be impossible without readers.
Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
Oh, definitely not. I love the fact that I could listen to it in sections and then muse on what was said for hours. It's pretty deep stuff!
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- George del Valle
- 03-27-15
Very difficult to understand.
I couldn't get past the first chapter. The thick accent and archaic language used made it very hard for me to follow.
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