Thursday, January 13, 2011

I think therefore I am

"Cogito ergo sum"

Back to the "cogito ergo sum", I think therefore I am.The work "I think" relates to the idea of existence in Descartes mind. He has started to doubt and question. Question about the reasons of existence which lead him to another great finding, which was "taking control". Additionally, I think he started to realise that man is responsible to his own action which defined the phrase "I am". Overall, the phrase was a wake-up call for the people at that time. That phrase pushed the French to posses the critical thinking and having doubts was not a bad thing at all.

Again,from my reading there were also opinions stated that Descartes has intrigued the idea of Atheism, which started with the doubt of the existence. Descartes questioned about the existence of himself and therefore, God. "A deceiver can’t deceive me of my existence, for if he were I wouldn’t exist." The true quote comes from Descartes "Discourse on Method" which suggesting the idea of doubts about everything.

In the Discourse, Descartes described four rules he established to make sure he always came to true conclusions.
  1. Doubt everything. “The first was never to accept anything as true if I did not know clearly that it was so … and to include nothing in my judgments apart from whatever appeared so clearly and distinctly to my mind that I had no opportunity to cast doubt on it.”
  2. Break every problem down into smaller parts.
  3. Solve the simplest problems first, and build from there.
  4. Be thorough. “The final rule was: In all cases, to make such comprehensive enumerations and such general reviews that I was certain not to omit anything.”

By following these simple guidelines, he said, “There cannot be anything so remote that it cannot eventually be reached nor anything so hidden that it cannot be uncovered.”

But to counter this argument, I would justify that if ones pondered about his existence, Descartes did stress on the word , "therefore I am",integrates the idea of admitting the fact that he is exist. Yes, the phrase caused thousands commotions of thoughts as the philosophical theory can be understood with many different ways. "It forms the bedrock for all knowledge, because, while all things can be questioned as to whether they are from the realm of reality or from some figment of imagination (a dream, influence of a demon, etc.), the very act of doubting one's own existence serves as proof of the reality of one's own existence." (Kauffamn,2008)

Somehow, that makes sense.Right? Till next week post..!Later.

I don't know which one was Descartes. They're all looked the same!

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