René Descartes

René Descartes (1596-1650) was a French philosopher and physicist whose emphasis on reason and logic as the foundations of knowledge revolutionized Western thought. He is perhaps most well known for the philosophical statement "Cogito, ergo sum" ("I think, therefore I am"), which asserts that the very act of doubting one's own existence proves that one must exist to do so.
==References==
* The official motto of Grouchland USA is "I Grouch, therefore I am."
* The season four Farscape episode, "I Shrink Therefore I Am," paraphrases Descartes' most famous quotation.
* The epigraph of Muppets Meet the Classics: The Phantom of the Opera includes the quote, "Masked, I advance," credited to Descartes, which precedes the less philosophical assertion, "I've fallen, and I can't get up!"
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Category:Literary References