2007-05-18 11:02:53 · 8 answers · asked by beth c 2 in Education & Reference ➔ Quotations
Here's the context of the quote. I don't have time today to figure it out. God luck to you.
-MM
2007-05-18 11:19:33 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Descartes, a philosopher and mathematician, is famous for that quote.
He tried to find "basic truths" where you do not have to assume anything in order for them to be true. For example, you probably think that your sitting in front of your computer right now, reading Yahoo Answers. But, really you could just be dreaming, hallucinating or serving time as a human battery in the matrix, and these are just the obvious things you could be wrong about.
So, you have no way of knowing anything about your surroundings without assuming some things first, therefore you cannot be really be sure about anything. For example, you cannot be absolutely sure where you are at the moment, without assuming that you are not dreaming right now.
Descarte said that there actually is _one thing_ you can be absolutely sure about without assuming anything first, namely that you exist. The reason for this is generally speaking, that while you may think things that are actually false, there must be someone doing the thinking, and that's you. Even if everything you think about the world is wrong, the fact that you are thinking at all proves that you must exist.
If I succeeded in explaining this clearly, this may seem obvious to you now, but actually this position is not universally accepted by everybody.
2007-05-18 18:25:04 · answer #2 · answered by blindsat 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Descartes maybe thought he was a thinker, but he was really an idiot hiding behind intellectualism. His assumptions were so unprovable, that AS proof, he would publicly butcher live animals to PROVE that they possessed no thoughts.
And if they had no thoughts, they didn't exist and therefore weren't alive. He equated their cries and shrieks to a rusty gate that needed oiling.
I have no time for Descartes and his twaddle.
2007-05-18 19:19:21 · answer #3 · answered by Lorenzo Steed 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
"Cogito ergo sum" (I think therefore I am) is Rene Descartes way of proving that because he is aware, then he does exist.
Rene Descartes said that we could never know the ultimate truth because everything we know goes through our senses, eyes, ears, nose, etc. We cannot perceive anything directly without going through these. He postulated that if there was a great deceiver, we wouldn't know that everything we know could be a lie. But of all the things that could be a lie, there is one thing that couldn't be, it was that he exists because he is aware.
I think (I am aware), therefore I am (so I exist). This is the only thing that the great deceiver could never fool him about.
Cogito ergo sum.
2007-05-18 18:24:34 · answer #4 · answered by Huge 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
its simple...i believe socrates said (but don't quote me) meaning we of everything on this planet are the only life form to be able actually think, make decisions, know right from wrong and to feel emotionally, its what sets us apart. for example a rock cant think so its just an object but me...i think therefore i am.
2007-05-18 18:14:24 · answer #5 · answered by stephanie 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You think with your mind right? If you had no brain would you still exist? No.
It could be translated "I have a brain in my head therefore I am still alive."
Hope it helps :)
2007-05-18 18:13:46 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
what descartes try to say was that if you don't think you are nodoby.Like when you gibberish ,is talking without thinking, you are no saying anything.
2007-05-18 18:11:33 · answer #7 · answered by majinvejito 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
That you can "make" yourself into "what" you "think" you are.
2007-05-22 14:59:15 · answer #8 · answered by dad 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋