Cogito ergo sum is a Latin philosophical proposition by Ren\u00e9 Descartes usually translated into English as “I think, therefore I am”. The phrase originally appeared in French as “je pense, donc je suis” in his Discourse on the Method, so as to reach a wider audience than Latin would have allowed. It appeared in Latin in his later Principles of Philosophy. As Descartes explained, “[W]e cannot doubt of our existence while we doubt… .” A fuller form, dubito, ergo cogito, ergo sum (“I doubt, therefore I think, therefore I am”), aptly captures Descartes\u2019 intent.<\/p>\n
This proposition became a fundamental element of Western philosophy, as it purported to form a secure foundation for knowledge in the face of radical doubt. While other knowledge could be a figment of imagination, deception, or mistake, Descartes asserted that the very act of doubting one’s own existence served – at minimum – as proof of the reality of one’s own mind; there must be a thinking entity – in this case the self – for there to be a thought.<\/p>\n
Luc Paquin<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Cogito ergo sum is a Latin philosophical proposition by Ren\u00e9 Descartes usually translated into English as “I think, therefore I am”. The phrase originally appeared in French as “je pense, donc je suis” in his Discourse on the Method, so as to reach a wider audience than Latin would have allowed. It appeared in Latin … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,11,21,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-family","category-friend","category-philosophy","category-spirituality"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sassquatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sassquatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sassquatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sassquatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sassquatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1394"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.sassquatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1394\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1396,"href":"https:\/\/www.sassquatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1394\/revisions\/1396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sassquatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sassquatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sassquatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}