In his Meditations, Descartes defended the thesis “Cogito ergo sum” ,”I think, therefore I am”, and reasoned that mind and matter are two different things. However, isn’t it the wrong order, I think, therefore I am? For if I wouldn’t be, I couldn’t think, for a non existing thinking being is impossible. Thinking is only possible for me if I exist and if this existing of me has developed that way that the existing being that I am can think. Therefore, my existing is a precondition for my thinking. For this reason it is not correct to say “Cogito ergo sum”, but rather one should say “Sum ergo cogito”, “I am, therefore I think”. But then it is not so that there is a thinking that happens to be my thinking, but my thinking is a consequence of my being as it happens to have developed. And this has consequences for my thinking, for my thinking cannot be separate of my being, as Descartes reasoned, but it is an inextricable part of my being, whatever that may involve.
4 comments:
To be is not to have the capacity to think, even if to think is to think in the manner of the way one is. It is not included in being that one thinks; it is, however, included in one's being able to state one's existence that one does indeed exist.
Hello Mr. Walker,
Thank you for your reaction. However, I did not say that being included the ability to think. I said or rather implied only that being is a necessary condition for thinking. It is quite well possible that there exist entities that cannot or do not think. In fact, this is so for most of what exists in this world.
HbdW
If thinking is a prerequisite to being or existing, what happens when I stop thinking for a while? Or to exist, do I have to be in the state of thinking all the time?
"The famous "Je pense, donc je suis" ("I think, therefore I am") - the similar statement in Latin, "Cogito ergo sum" is found in his (Descartes') later "Principles of Philosophy". It is worth mentioning here that, by "thinking", Descartes did not just mean conceptual thought, but all forms of consciousness, experience, feelings." https://www.philosophybasics.com/philosophers_descartes.html
Being or existing or witnessing (as in meditation) makes intentionality (Franz Brentano) possible: thinking, feeling, doing, etc.
I am therefore I think, feel, do.
As an aside, this is the reason why meditation is a non-thinking non-discriminatory experience of being/consciousness, witnessing thoughts and emotions, to know and experience one's true identity which is basically one's consciousness.
Gonzalo B. Misa
gonzalobmisa@gmail.com
June 5, 2020
If thinking is a prerequisite to being or existing, what happens when I stop thinking for a while? Or to exist, do I have to be in the state of thinking all the time?
"The famous "Je pense, donc je suis" ("I think, therefore I am") - the similar statement in Latin, "Cogito ergo sum" is found in his (Descartes') later "Principles of Philosophy". It is worth mentioning here that, by "thinking", Descartes did not just mean conceptual thought, but all forms of consciousness, experience, feelings." https://www.philosophybasics.com/philosophers_descartes.html
Being or existing or witnessing (as in meditation) makes intentionality (Franz Brentano) possible: thinking, feeling, doing, etc.
I am therefore I think, feel, do.
As an aside, this is the reason why meditation is a non-thinking non-discriminatory experience of being/consciousness, witnessing thoughts and emotions, to know and experience one's true identity which is basically one's consciousness.
Gonzalo B. Misa
gonzalobmisa@gmail.com
June 5, 2020
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