Is "cogito ergo sum" absolutely certain?

Question

"cogito ergo sum" means "I think therefore I am" by Rene Descartes. This pertains to referring all our conscious operations such as seeing, hearing, pleasure, pain, and not only to reasoning proper.

Answer 1

It literally means "I am conscious, therefore I exist". Even to doubt that you exist requires that you exist to have the doubt. Thus, this establishes your existence as fact, but only for you, since I cannot be sure you are conscious in the same direct way.

Answer 2

Sum id quod sum et id, totum est quod sum.

HTH,

Doug

Answer 3

"I think therefore I know I am thinking" is perhaps a better interpretation.

"I am, therefore I think" is more logical, for being precedes thinking; Descartes, in the Enlightenment mode, separates thinking from being, and places thinking as the more accurate.  While true, more accurate does not mean more essential...without being, one thinks not.

"I think I am" also works.

However, thinking and being are not distinct, nor is sensibility necessarily non-transcendental.

Per neuroscience, we also know that "thinking" may be lower beta wave function, also alpha wave function, both of which are categorically distinct, and high gamma wave functioning.  This latter finds various neuronal connections connecting in a special mode, which is higher than other mentation states, and associated with insight, creativity, and Vipassana meditation http://www.dhamma.org

Jung-Beeman and Kounios found anterior superior temporal gyrus (aSTG) coordinating gamma wave mentation or thinking, which both brings together disparate awareness patterns and reassembles them into a new, more coherent pattern.  Further, the two hemispheres' neuronal branching patterns are significantly different (the right hemisphere neurons have more connectivity, a "broader perspective" as it were), and the aSTG coordinates those as well.

Answer 4

Not only is it certain, but it is so true that not a person in the world can claim to inwardly feel any different on the subject. It is such a part of our selves and inner knowing that nobody can recite that concept and not have some sort of feelings about it, especially with the translation "I am conscious, therefor I exist". (Personally, and I'm likely wrong on this, but I think a more literal translation might be "I cognate therefore I am of all my cognition").

Answer 5

It's an axiom. Like all axioms, it's taken for granted and logical deductions are made using it. So it can't really be said to be absolutely certain. Rather, its usefulness must be based on the consistency and utility of the deductions made from it.

Answer 6

Well, may be someone did that piece of thinking for you, but it was still using the first person "I" while it was thinking your thought up for you and it must have being existing -- if virtually, while it was doing that thinking.

As for the senses, those might be faked and therefore reduced to mere delusional thoughts, but thoughts could not be reduced further.

Or so I was told.

Answer 7

Yes it is... But cogito ergo sum applies only to thinking not the senses... Descartes' whole point was that the senses could be fooled... Look up Brain in a vat....

Answer 8

"cogito ergo sum" is only the first step towards enlightenment. The next is to ask the question so elegantly put by Manuel from Faulty Towers - "Que?"

Or if you are unfamiliar with that character "WHAT am I?"

Answer 9

SUM ERGO SUM  -  Thinking is not a prerequisite for existence. Perhaps it could be said that believing in one's existence incurs a certainty in that truth, but other things exist that we have no way of knowing as to whether or not they think. As the oceans, they exist, do they think as the one solid union that they are? They are full of living organisms, there are currents that permeate their insides, much as the currents that flow through the bodies of 'thinking' organisms. Yet, can one tell me that they think? The one thing that can be assumed, is that they exist, along with the skies that work together with them as clockwork.

The houses we live in, the machines, or tools, that we use all exist, but the question here is do they think.

Therefore, existence is in existence because it exists. Not because it complicates, not because it analyzes but because it exists. So with my minimal understanding of very basic Latin, I repeat SUM ERGO SUM. I exist therefore I exist.

Answer 10

Only two things in life are certain, death and taxes.*  Since descartes' expression is "taxing"  (lol) your intellect, i think you have your answer.

*Ben Franklin.

Answer 11

perhaps, but then, it doesn't really speculate on the nature of the ego. you are - fine, I can't argue that - but exactly what are you?

Answer 12

You are referring to the senses. These are not necessary for thought.