How do you think you know you think?

Question

A wise Greek once said 'I think, therefore I am'. But how can you be sure you think, and not spouting some BS by fate, god or the coffee you're drinking. How do you prove thought, and with that, your existence?

Thank you, Novice, you're right. Heard this one?
[A bartender asks René Descartes if he'd fancy another wee dram. "I think not," he says, and vanishes.]

Answer 1

OK pal, here I go. The problem is not to prove thought but to prove the world (and even this is easy to do). Matrix is the worst film I ever seen, sorry for this. You cannot doubt you do exist because you think. The world might not be there (you doubt) but the fact is you are thinking (in order to be able to doubt you need to think). Please do note you cannot say no to this (I need to think to doubt). That's all about it. Just read Descartes pal.

Answer 2

Actually aristotle said "i suspect, therefore i am". you're quote would be from Frenchman Renee Descarte "I think , therefore i am" (cogito ergo sum). Renee Descarte did also suggest that ideas e.g cogito principle are either adventitious(entering our mind from the outside), factitious(formed/manufactured by our own minds) or innate(as inscribed on our minds by God). This is merely scratching the surface, you can read more about it if you want.

Answer 3

What does it mean to think? For instance, would it be possible in the future for robots to think? Consider iRobot-Asimov.
In Sociology, the term feral children refers to children who have grown up issolated from Society. There is a story of story of children who are raised by wolves thinking that they were wolves themselves. This was what the original thesis behind Tarzan was.

From birth, we are conditioned by society and brainwashed in social conformity. It is sometimes hard for individual thought and sometimes we think that some thoughts are our own, only to find out that someone else actually said that. Universities on the hunt for signs of human intelligence and thinking must erradicate plagerism in order to find pure thought.

Answer 4

I think a more common sense approach is needed here instead of philosophical one. And what that common sense approach might be, let me think.

The permanence of thought in my mind is prov en by the fact that I cannot stop thinking. If for example I imagine a flower I cannot unimagine it at my will. And as I struggle with my imagination I know that one is my flow of thoughts and then there is me who is thinking about thinking. My capability to think like this affects both what I think about and how I choose to think about whatever it is that I thinking about. But I do not think I know how much I think.

Answer 5

How do you know anyone has read your question or even replied to it?

How do you know you are here at all?

As Professor C E M Joad would say, "You must first DEFINE the word THINK".

When you do that you will have given yourself the complete answer.

Answer 6

My thoughts are a witness to my consciousness. My conscious is the product of being. I am, because I think I am.

Answer 7

Thank you so much! What little brain I had just squealed and oozed out of my right ear.

I hope you are happy now!
(yet, somehow, I still think that I'm thinking...)

Answer 8

You don't need to know if you think. If you can think about anything at all, you can be sure you have thought. But, do we exist if we don't think? In my opinion, we do. Plants exist and they don't think.

Answer 9

well...somethings going on, cause i pinched myself and it hurt.

hey, thanks for that.