Lisa at Exploding Aardvark has a "this day in history feature," and I particularly savored her phrasing here:
1596 A woman gives birth to René Descartes, therefore he is
However, the assertion flies in the face of evidence to the contrary in "The Philosopher's Drinking Song":
Rene Descartes was a drunken fart:
I drink, therefore I am."
Does anyone else suspect that he plucked his eyebrows?
Posted by: gail | March 31, 2007 at 08:45 AM
Oddly enough, the song's attribution to Plato drinking whiskey is completely off the mark since the still didn't arrive till roughly the 7th century AD, an invention of the Persians.
Posted by: prairie biker | March 31, 2007 at 09:58 AM
Pepys is cuter.
*wink*
Posted by: Pixie | March 31, 2007 at 10:21 AM
I don't know about plucked eyebrows, but he DOES bear a creepy resemblance to Sylvester Stallone.
Posted by: JWebb | March 31, 2007 at 10:34 AM
Considering that Socrates himself was permanently pissed - um, never mind.
Posted by: CGHill | March 31, 2007 at 11:09 AM
It's that weird droopy eyelid, isn't it?
Posted by: gail | March 31, 2007 at 05:13 PM
A lovely little thinker but a bugger when he's pissed.
Posted by: Scott P | March 31, 2007 at 08:36 PM
You've heard the old joke about the woman talking to Descartes in a bar, right.....?
Posted by: CraigC | April 01, 2007 at 12:10 AM