I think, therefore I am. This isn't quite the moment of triumph it may appear to have been in man's courageous historical battle to prove to himself that his existence is indeed provable to himself. I'll brazenly ignore the possible intricacies of the phrase in its original language & confine myself to pretending the words & meaning are accurately conveyed in the English, as perhaps they are.
Descartes could have written, "I run, therefore I am." Or perhaps, "I walk, therefore I am." Or even the exotic, "I fly Japanese kites, therefore I am." The I bit at the start of the linguistic construct engaged in the doing of anything, or even in the not doing of anything, tautologically is. I, were I in the vicinity at the time & acquainted with Descartes, would have suggested, "I am, therefore I am."
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From my poor memory of studying the guy, it is the "I" bit that is the tricky bit. I'm not sure that he was justified in positing an "I" just because some thinking was going on.
yeah, the problem with the 'I' was that this I was just thought, and only one type of thought too. So being, being the inference from thought, is reduced to thought, and so all being becomes thought...which is mad. Even idealists like the buddhists who say there is no matter don't say being is equated with the human cognitive ego. Descartes just preached cognitive arrogance, didnt he?
Thing is, Descartes never said Cogito Ergo Sum. The phrase was later coined in a letter suggesting his ideas could generally be expressed by it. Just saying...
I couldn't pretend to be knowledgeable about Western philosophy...well I could, but twould be fraudulent so perhaps Descartes is misrepresented by the phrase, though tis possibly irrelevant since it is the phrase itself that has become so famous.
My other suggested version of the phrase is:
There is thought, therefore the I that I think I am appears to be.
Not as catchy, Andrew. It needs work.
I am, therefore I think, Neil?
Hi, Im from Melbourne Australia.
Please check out these related references on self-understanding.
1. www.dabase.org/dualsens.htm
2. www.dabase.org/unique.htm
3. www.dabase.org/tfrbkgil.htm
4. www.easydeathbook.com
5. www.dabase.org/2armP1.htm#ch1b
6. www.adidabiennale.org
I don't mean irrelevant in terms of what Descartes has to say but that it is the Cogito ergo sum that has become embedded within cultural history.
And I'd agree, Jonathon, it's the reasoning intellect preaching its absolute domination of the self. Perhaps, in Eastern philosophical terms, it's the ego saying I am all; a statement that self-imagined rationalists/materialists seem to be convinced is absolute truth.
Alright, don't mean to be harshing you about any lack of exposure to western philosophy. I was merely responding to the phrase "cogito ergo sum" having any part to "man's courageous historical battle to prove to himself that his existence is provable to himself."
The key missing ingredient here. is doubt. A more accurate phrase would be I am something that is doubting, even if it is doubting that I'm doubting, because there's an unquestionable existence of doubt infering the unquestionable existence of the thing that doubts."
but i guess that's not sexy enough
I didn't take your comment any way badly, rex, but of course tone can be hard to convey in mere words on a page. I'd find the kind of reasoning that seems to be going on, such as this doubting intellect, essentially an unhealthy kind of paranoia where the thinking mind becomes isolated within itself, & inevitably comes to doubt existence as a whole including itself, because it has become this mind artificially cut off from life as a result of its own thought processes.
:)!!!!!!!
Hi Rex,
But Descartes did say, in his Discourse on Method "je pense, donc je suis." And in his Principles of Philosphy he does say "ego cogito, ergo sum."
I am, therefore I am, and if you don't like it you can fuck off
Philosophy with a hammer
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