2007-02-11 04:31:38 · 20 answers · asked by ilover_1400 1 in Education & Reference ➔ Quotations
It means that since you are able to conceive your existence, then you must exist to be able to do so.
Additional: This is an example of circular reasoning, where the premise is used to validate itself.
2007-02-11 04:34:54 · answer #1 · answered by marklemoore 6 · 2⤊ 4⤋
You need to read Descartes "Meditation On First Philosophy" to get the entire argument. Rene Descartes was basically trying to get at the basis of what we can know and he starts by assuming that everything he sees is a lie to trick him, so he has to start by observing his own mind, and the most basic fact concerning his own existence he can come up with is that "he thinks" that is he performs an action, and therefore he must exist in some way for him to be capable of this. He bases five additional Meditations on the result of this first one.
2007-02-11 04:37:49 · answer #2 · answered by Runa 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It's supposedly from Descartes, although many others can claim to be the originator. The actual phrase was: Dubito, ergo cogito, ergo sum - I doubt, therefore I think, therefore I am. It's a existential circular argument: because I doubt that I exist, I must therefore be able to think; if I am able to think, I must exist; but I doubt that I exist......
2007-02-11 05:00:16 · answer #3 · answered by Paul The Rock Ape 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
the sunshine is the only distinction between a candlestick and a candle. the sunshine in a candle became no longer seen till now the candle became lit, and it would not be seen even now if there have been no longer something around to gentle up - gentle by using it self is invisible. and not making use of a candle there could be no gentle and without issues to gentle up the sunshine could be proceed to be left out. Now, if the flame of the candle is the strategies of the candle then gentle is its theory – the theory that sees and on the comparable situations helps all to be certain what it sees. Or could be we are like a sale boat in the midst of an ocean with endless skies above and immeasurable depths under. there's no longer something yet water all around. all of us understand purely lots of this ocean and something is unknown. Now, the 'I' is the voyager or the sailor upon that boat – the classic mariner on an eternal journey in direction of some unknown trip spot that he calls his domicile. there is an endless universe all around us, yet our inner depths are the two super. We, as all of us understand one yet another, are like an interface between the international all of us understand and the international that we don't understand – to understand something surely is to be that factor. Our existence is like an interface between what we truly are and what this international is. The ever-spreading circle of sunshine, our strategies, is the domicile of our information and information. And the 'I' is the operator in that strategies. Our strategies are created till now we easily enhance into responsive to them, and thanks to this that they are organised and sequential. strategies come to us or ‘I’. The 'I' is the rational self that holds the seat of know-how and ensures the appliance of our finished information into the international that all of us understand or is below our study. The 'I' would not understand the full inner self and neither that's usual with of all that's the international yet 'I' is totally involved and huge wide awake the place those 2 worlds meet and work together to be one.
2016-10-01 23:21:35 · answer #4 · answered by minick 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Cogito ergo sum. Wikipedia has a decent explanation and some of the arguments against it,plus it's history.
The ability to think guarantees our existence, no room for doubt
2007-02-11 04:44:54 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
"I think" - The mind is a powerful thing. If you are thinking about something long enough and hard enough your mind will find ways to put your 'thinking' into reality. For example, if you think yourself to be a klutz you will notice that stumbling and falling come a little easier. If you think of yourself as an intelligent, worthy person, then you will find that others do to, "therefore you are" or "therefore I am". :-)
2007-02-11 04:37:39 · answer #6 · answered by Catie I 5 · 0⤊ 2⤋
Humans have the ability to make choices when faced with a situation. The "lesser" animals respond automatically, as in "Stimulus=Response". Humans have "Stimulus=Think/Decide=Respond". The idea is that this ability is what makes us superior to the rest of nature, because it makes us aware of ourselves.
2007-02-11 04:45:08 · answer #7 · answered by Redshanks 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
That the mind is essential to existence. It has been argued that this statement is flawed because there are objects that exist, yet cannot think.
2007-02-11 04:38:50 · answer #8 · answered by Groovy 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
cogito ergo sum in latin- decarte.
basically he is saying i think therefore i am, by the very fact that you are doubting your existence proves your own existence.
2007-02-14 21:59:08 · answer #9 · answered by mattman 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It's basically making you ask yourself: If I didn't think, would I exist? It implies that the world only exists due to what we know and what we think we know.
2007-02-11 04:35:19 · answer #10 · answered by Lena 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
He is what he thinks and believes and makes himself out to be... Nobody thinks for him or tells him to believe or what to be.. He thinks for himself therefore he is what he, not society, wants him to be...(I hope i made sence..)
Something to make myself clear for..again..
He thinks for himself and is sure of himself therefore he is what he wants to be.......(Once again i hope i make sence)...........
2007-02-11 08:35:39 · answer #11 · answered by vOxNi 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋