I think therefore i am. The greatest mistake in philosophy?

Answer 1

The philosopher Descartes believed that he had found the most fundamental truth when he made his famous statement: "I think, therefore I am." He had, in fact, given expression to the most basic error: to equate thinking with Being and identity with thinking. The compulsive thinker, which means almost everyone, lives in a state of apparent separateness, in an insanely complex world of continuous problems and conflict, a world that reflects the ever-increasing fragmentation of the mind. Enlightenment is a state of wholeness, of being "at one" and therefore at peace. At one with life in its manifested aspect, the world, as well as with your deepest self and life unmanifested - at one with Being. Enlightenment is not only the end of suffering and of continuous conflict within and without, but also the end of the dreadful enslavement to incessant thinking. What an incredible liberation this is!

Answer 2

John s... I agree with you, and you were doing excellent until you referred double positives as oxymoron's. Double positives are things like what you stated, most smartest... You can say most intelligent, or the smartest. Oxymoron's are things like jumbo shrimp, military intelligence (that one is a joke, but sometimes not to far from the truth)...
On to the answer... I disagree. I think it is one of the best examples of philosophy. It does not matter what a person is told they are, (the person is no good. Or that they are a great person), they will not truly be that statement unless they believe it themselves. Therefore, "I think therefore I am" is a correct statement, and a very good philosophy. However I guess one could argue that since that philosophy is correct, those that think ill of themselves, it IS a mistake. I guess this one is up to the eye of the beholder... I still think it is a good philosophy.
CyberNara.

Answer 3

Are there really any true mistakes in philosophy?
Can philosophy make mistakes?
Philosophy wouldn't exist if we weren't here to think, so therefore
WOULD PHILOSOPHY BE THE GREATEST MISTAKE OF MANKIND?

Answer 4

Admitedly Descartes did not have all the answers but to advocate a system of questionning and allowing a degree of sceptical doubt is the basis of modern philosophy. His failure to stick to pure a priori reasoning was the failing of his philosophical system the Malign Genie's selective powers, the use of doubted reason to justify a benign god, etc.. However I think the actual concept was not the cogito ergo sum expressed in his Meditations but the Cogito sum ergo sum, expressed in his discourses. The difference being that no person whilst thinking they exist could actually doubt they exist. As has been mentioned the very fact the "I" has been mentioned (thought) predicates and "I" that exists to think. The reason he mentions thinking instead of say farting is because he allows his doubt to seemingly extend as far as thoughts just existing without an "I" (a bit weird but logically possible) except however when he is thinking "I exist."

Answer 5

Well if it were a mistake, that would be no bad thing, for philosophy is ornamented and extended by what we perceive to be the errors of others.

What is a 'mistake' anyway? Is it a fault in logic, or a defective observation, or a statement that fails to correspond with anything beyond language?

Answer 6

I don't think so, it is not a mistake it is the confirmation of your existence. I think therefore i am is an affirmation that what I think is what I am. I am the thought, the thinker, I am the thinking mind and the content of my consciousness that we call mind are thoughts. All of my thoughts is the "me". If I think about anything under the sun, I am that anything. My existence is vulnerable so I keep on protecting it with all materials that I think will hold my existence.(ignorance about the truth) This is the reason why I am always afraid and lonely.

Answer 7

The saying (as formulated by Descartes) is a mistake. The "I" of the Cartesian cogito ("I think") is the res cogitans and only the res cogitans. The res extensa does not think (on Descartes' model). Hence, there is a dualistic split between mind and matter, soul and body. This type of reasoning is wrong-headed. But it is not the greatest philosophical mistake in history. One of the greatest mistakes is Nietzschean ressentiment (as noted by Max Scheler). Yet another mistake is the concept of Ubermensch.

Answer 8

Well, even with deductive thinking it only works in Latin. Cogito contains no pronoun, but if you say, "I think there for I am," in English, you have exceeded the necessary perameters for proving your point. When you have uttered the pronoun "I" you have demonstrated your existence. Why didn't he say "I fart therefore I am?"

He starts by doubting his own existence to wipe the slate clean, and on page four he's got hold of God, and the good old Hebrew diety that we have all come to know and fear as the First Cause.

He proves God's existence by simply saying that he can conceive of a being more perfect than himself, and if he can conceive of it it must exist and it must be God. WOW!

There are no degrees of perfection. It's like possible; something is either possible or it is not. Highly possible is a oxymoran, just as "more perfect" is. To know that something is perfect, it's function must be known in order do demonstrate that if serves that function so that no improvement is possible and nothing is omitted. God's Function???

Descartes caused more damage to the philosophical tradtion with his apriori bullshit than any one since St. Thomas mangled Aristotle to make him fit Roman theology.

Inductive thinking was a century in recovering if it ever fully did.

Answer 9

for all the pedantic positioning, for all philosophers and quasi-philosophers...your commentators and critics show a knowledge of the material...

but as to the question at hand...

NO...a philosophical "mistake" occurs when the consequences of the assumptions-a priori- contains a logical contradiction, a mutually exclusive situation...it is as if the "philosophy" were a mathematical model...it does not make mistakes...it is said to be "inconsistent"

as far as "cogito ergo sum"....it has lead to considerations of existence, thought, epistemology; and reacting against his formulae, other schools of philosophy...

a mistake???? NO
a point in the continuum

Answer 10

The are no mistakes in philosophy. Philosophy is about ideas. If you don't like or agree with them then try something else or come up with something better.