Does the quote "I think therefore I am" really make sense?

Answer 1

The quote might make sense, but Descartes himself did not. He is best known for this quote (which he arrived at by coming to the conclusion that everything around him could be an illusion created by his own mind, but the fact that he could think of these things proved that at least HE existed, even if everything else did not) but lesser-known is the fact that he is the father of modern materialism and the exploitation of animals and people for material gains and greed. Descartes believed that animals had no "souls" and therefore no feelings of consciousness. Any sound of pain they make, he said, are just the squeaking of an unoiled machine. This opened the way for animal abuses and the abuse of workers in the Industrial Revolution. I suppose if you believe that you are the only thing that really exists, and everything else is just an illusion, then it's easy to dismiss the suffering of fellow living beings. Very egotistical if you ask me -- and the opposite of love and compassion. So does Descartes make sense? Not to me. I think he was a very disturbed person.

Answer 2

It depends on how you think of it. As a rationalist, Descartes could never make such a hard-core empirical statement. The tenor of the statement is that the speaker's thinking causes his existence in the same sense in which striking the nail with the hammer causes the nail to be driven into the board. Descartes' intent was that his thinking makes him aware of his existence since his thinking is indubitable and there must be something which is doing this thinking.

So, can thinking cause existence in hard-core empirical sense? Perhaps, but that is not a defensibly Cartesian position. Is it a sensible attribution to Descartes? Everybody and their grandfather doing so notwithstanding, NO, as noted above. Can perception be used as the basis for existence? Certainly, that is the basis for rationalism.

You may want to also check out subject vs object and that age-old question: "If a tree falls in the forest and noone's there to hear it, does it make a noise?"

Answer 3

It does make sense to the person whose 'being' is mostly predominent through his mind !
The question "where are you" has interesting answers when asked deep within ( or you ask yourself "where am I right now" !).
Please look at the following situations:
A teacher tells a student/s when inattentive in a class "Please be here !"
When you get hit on a head or shoulder in a overcrowded Bus, inadvertently by a neighbour's arm etc, you suddenly exclaim "Why are you hitting me ? " !! (note, you don't say why are you hitting my body, stomach, back etc..)
When you are relaxed and refer to something that happened (physical) to you , you refer to , say your injured arm , finger or so as "my finger (etc) got injured" (not me ) and when you win a game, it is "I played well" not "my arm /leg/brain/(etc) performed well (or played well)....

Well , all this is just to help noticing that we 'express' what we feel about where we are at that time.. so, a serious thinking person is quite reasonable when he says "I think therefore I am".

An interesting addition (for the more inquisitive), ... please give a thought to this... can this " I " be really oscillating between the mind and the body ? And no where else (when we are lost .. due to day dreaming, sleep dreams, or why, even sleep)? Well, do give a thought to this seriously and when the mind is tired enough thinking about this, ask the mind to give up, and try merely 'looking' at it experientially ! Food for soul/being/whatever-name-the "it" - has (?)

Answer 4

No, if we look back at DeCartes, which is were this quote comes from, he would suggest that we doubt or deny everything we know about. However, if we doubt everything we certainly can not doubt ourselves, the doubters. Therefore the quote goes "I doubt, therefore I am." Which does make sense, and because of this, people around the time of DeCartes started thinking about their "I".

Answer 5

Yes it does
If you look at it from the view point, of all thoughts are manifestations, and you put your thoughts, toward positive goals you want to achieve in your life. Putting thoughts out there, help the universe, manifest them to be so. If you did not think, then would you not, cease to exist? Or so, if you didn't think, what would be the point of existing then?

Answer 6

No beacuse it is quite possilbe to think somethign and not act on it. that is to say, I can know somethin gis true and have a neurotic reaction and not do it. Therefore you need the combination of thought and action.

Answer 7

I believe this quote means that those who are aware of their existence are truly alive, and can therefore change, adapt, create, destroy consciously.

Answer 8

If you wonder if this statement makes sense you prove it as true.

Answer 9

I don't think it's completely accurate. Or are people in vegetative states ("I think" = no) in a state of non existence ("I am" = no)?

Answer 10

it means i am conscious therefore i exist [as consciousness]