Cogito Ergo Sum or I Think Therefore I Am

Cogito Ergo Sum Means

‘Cogito ergo sum’ means ‘I think therefore I am.’ This is one of the most outstanding and misleadingly simple proverbs in all western beliefs that ever existed. The concept of cogito is very important for Descartes venture in the Meditations. This concept is important to him since it forms the basic building blocks of his philosophy. There exist two different definitions of cogito; an institution and an immediate inference from the premise ‘I think.’ The following section highlights the steps used to reach the certainty of the Cogito, discussed in this custom research paper.

Beyond Reasonable Doubt

Descartes is sore with the self imposed uncertainty about the world’s existence. He has a feeling that he fell into a whirlpool, whereby he is not able to stand up being at the bottom or swim on top. This idea has been adequately expressed severally by Descartes in his works. This step admits doubt as there is no movement in the process of thinking, yet the author attempts to show that the thought moves in some way.

Cogito as an Inference

The convectional formulation of the concept of cogito is prearranged in the way of an argument with premise, operator, and conclusion. This formulation is, however, not a correct and, therefore, Descartes has to introduce an additional premise known as ‘everything that thinks exists.’ Descartes does not admit that the statement has been truncated. This step admits doubt since the statement seems to be a truncated version of ‘everything that thinks exists. ’

The Cogito as an Intuition

This notion, in the majority of cases, is regarded with a lot of suspicion. In order to determine whether the interpretation provided can be taken as philosophically superior, we have to prove that the concepts ‘I think’ and ’I exist’ are all beyond any doubt. This step also admits doubt as it is very difficult to prove the two concepts hand in hand.

Cogito’s Certainty

Interpreting cogito as an intuition is much greater from the philosophical side since intuition appears to be the knack that we use to gain the preliminary certainties used to make deductions possible. If cogito could be an assumption, then this would not be the adage that Descartes was seeking. Since it is the self, we are not able to allow the idea, even in case it was capable of repudiation. The knowledge of self is, in fact, not in any person’s case adventitious. This knowledge is, instead, self-established. It’s impossible to establish this knowledge through perception since the self can be perceived as an agent that acts through the ‘means of right knowledge.’

Cogito Ergo Sum a Causality

This statement was one of the elementary elements of Western Philosophy and was alleged to form a foundation of knowledge. Even though other knowledge could be considered a fabrication of thoughts, the act of being skeptical about one’s own survival serves to some people as enough evidence of the authenticity of one’s own existence or at least one’s contemplation. This argument has, however, received a lot of criticisms by various scholars. Descartes denied that Cogito is a syllogism but failed to justify the property of thinking.

Descartes’ Project of Uncertainty

Descartes project of uncertainty leaves some questions unanswered, especially regarding the property of thinking. Even though, to some extent, this project helped us in unraveling some myths and truths about our thinking, it doesn’t satisfactorily address the various properties involved in thinking and the fabrication of thoughts. Despite the inadequacies, we can state that this was a successful project and some of the goals that Descartes wanted to achieve were achieved. The project provided a fundamental concept in the elements of Western Philosophy.