The significance of the 'Cogito' for Cartesian and modern philosophy.

Descartes' 'Cogito' is regarded by many as the birth of modern philosophy. Descartes was born in on the cusp of 17th century in 1596 after the high renaissance had literally rebirth-ed the worlds of the arts, politics and science. Philosophy was largely untainted by this worldwide upheaval initially as medieval scholasticism was still the dominant system studied and taught. Philosophy's renaissance from scholasticism was to come with Descartes and his contemporaries when the European world was …

…Descartes towards a mind-body dualist position. The body is dubitable but the mind is not and so Descartes derives two simple substances that the world is composed of: There are bodies and material things that are spatial and temporal and there are minds that are pure thought and not composed of any material thing. This position was to be influential on Gilbert Ryle and P.F. Strawson who opposed the view in the twentieth century.