Abstract: “I think, therefore I am” is the popularized formulation of Descartes’ famous cogito ergo sum (hereafter, “cogito”). The cogito's epistemological significance is supposed to derive from its status as an utterly self-evident truth – “the first and most certain of all to occur to anyone who philosophizes in an orderly way” (AT VIIIA 7, CSM I 195). “Orderly” philosophizing involves a program of methodic doubt – doubt resistance, or indubitability, being the central criterion of knowledge. Some texts express the cogito's underlying point in terms of doubt (itself a form of thinking): “It is not possible for us to doubt that we exist while we are doubting; and this is the first thing we come to know” (AT VIIIA 6f, CSM I 194). Barry Stroud (2010, 518) remarks that the cogito “is certainly among the most important and longest-lasting ingredients of Descartes's legacy.” Though Descartes’ treatment of the cogito is history's most famous, it is arguably not the first. Augustine of Hippo presented a remarkably similar version of his own: “If I am mistaken, I exist” (Si fallor, sum). The differences in formulation are not insignificant. Lively debates persist concerning Descartes’ own formulation.
Publication Year: 2015
Publication Date: 2015-12-31
Language: en
Type: book-chapter
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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Cited By Count: 4
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