Descartes’ Cogito: The Foundation of Knowledge
The Cogito: The First Truth
The cogito is the first truth in the order of knowledge, and in two respects: firstly, it is the first truth that we obtain when we employ methodical doubt, and secondly, because from it, we can substantiate all others. It becomes the basic axiom from which all philosophy developed as a knowledge system.
Clarifications on “I Think, Therefore I Exist”
In connection with the famous phrase “I think, therefore I exist,” the following clarifications are essential:
1. The Cogito as Intuition
Although Descartes presents this knowledge as inferential, one must not believe that this truth comes from an argument or demonstration. It does not come this way because the methodological doubt (particularly the evil genius hypothesis) questions the very value of deductive reason. Moreover, as Descartes himself states in his reply to the second objection, if this proposition were the conclusion of a syllogism, we would need to know beforehand most everything he thinks is or exists which is based precisely on the observation that self can not think if there is no general propositions as the gain from the knowledge of individuals. The cogito, ergo sum is an intuition. The proposed set of reflections before reaching Descartes cogito serve to prepare our mind and arrange it so that he can experience an immediate and obvious that truth. We can get someone to accept the existence or properties of a physical object without proof enough for us to help you direct your gaze to that object (which teach you to look): well, as does Descartes, teaches us to look at a particular you have on our mind so that it captures the truth with evidence.
2. The Meaning of “I Think”
One should be careful with the word I think (and the proposition “I think, therefore I am”) because with it we now refer to the experience through which we have a conceptual and intellectual knowledge of reality. However, Descartes is more generic and has come to be synonymous with mental act or experience or mental or psychic content. Descartes himself tells us that with the word think understand everything that occurs in us so that we perceive immediately by ourselves, for this, not only understanding, willing, imagining, but also feel the same thing here to think about. The common feature to understand, want, think, feel, (and think strictly speaking, thinking and reasoning or conceptualization) is that they can be an immediate perception, or in our language, that all these experiences have the attribute of consciousness , being aware or can be. All the characteristic mental act to be certain, none of them may be false, so that memory would be much, therefore I am, I imagine, therefore I am, I wish, therefore I am, I suffer, therefore I am , I think therefore I am.
3. The Mind as a Prime Area for Truth
The discovery of the Cartesian cogito simply states that the mind is a prime area for truth because of mental states themselves no doubt when we look to them and describe them only in so far as shown such a thoughtful look. In modern terms we would say that the propositions describing the mental life are incorrigible, while referring to the reality outside the mind itself (including those relating to the minds of others) are fallible or doubtful: when going to the dentist and say that it hurts a tooth doctor can tell us that is impossible since we have such a crush, and we call attention to its correction, but it seems absurd that you simply indicate that we feel pain, try to correct our description indicating that it is impossible, that does not really sorry.
4. Historical Note: St. Augustine’s Anticipation
As a historical note, it may be indicated that St. Augustine in De libero dock, 2, 3, 7 anticipated this with his first truth “si fallor, sum” (if I’m wrong, I exist), though in St. Augustine this discovery has no importance in the Cartesian philosophy. The cogito is going to become a criterion of truth in the proposition “I think, therefore I am” sure there is nothing except the truth that it becomes clear that to think is necessary to exist. So we can take the general rule that the things we think more clearly and more distinctly are all true.