Идея, которую предложил Декарт, «Мыслю, consequently, I exist ”(in the original it sounds like Cogito ergo sum), this is a statement that was first made a long time ago, as early as the 17th century. Today it is considered to be a philosophical statement, constituting a fundamental element of the thought of the New time, more precisely, of Western rationalism. The statement has remained popular in the future. Today, the phrase "think, therefore, to exist" knows every educated person.
Descartes thought
Descartes put forward this proposition as truth,primary authenticity in which one cannot doubt and, therefore, with which it is possible to build a “building” of genuine knowledge. This argument should not be taken as the inference of the form "he who thinks exists: I think, and therefore I exist." Its essence, on the contrary, is in self-reliance, evidence of existence as a thinking subject: any mental act (and more broadly - the experience of consciousness, representation, since it is not limited to cogito thinking) reveals exercising, thinking with a reflexive look. I mean the self-detection of the subject in the act of consciousness: I think and discover, contemplating this thinking, myself, behind its contents and acts.
Formulation options
Option Cogito ergo sum (“think, therefore,exist ”) in the most significant work of Descartes is not used, although this formulation is erroneously given as an argument with reference to the work of 1641. Descartes feared that the formulation he used in his earlier work allowed for a different interpretation from the context in which he applied it in his conclusions. In an effort to get away from creating a semblance of a specific logical conclusion interpretation, since in fact it implies the direct discretion of truth, self-evidentness, the author “think, therefore, exist” removes the first part of the above phrase and leaves only “I exist” (“I am” ). He writes (Reflection II) that whenever the words “I exist”, “I am” are pronounced, or they are perceived by the mind, this judgment will be true of necessity.
Habitual saying, Ego cogito, ergosum (in translation - “I think, therefore I exist”), the meaning of which now, we hope, you are clear, appears as an argument in the work of 1644 under the title “The Beginning of Philosophy”. It is written by Descartes in Latin. However, this is not the only formulation of the idea “to think, therefore, to exist.” There were others.
Descartes's predecessor, Augustine
Not only did Descartes come to the argument of “thinking,therefore, I exist. " Who said the same words? We answer. Long before this thinker, this argument was suggested by St. Augustine in his polemic with skeptics. It can be found in the book of this thinker called “On the City of God” (11 book, 26). The phrase is: Si fallor, sum (“If I am mistaken, then, therefore, I exist”).
The difference between the thoughts of Descartes and Augustine
The fundamental difference between Descartes and Augustine, however, lies in the consequences, goals and context of the “think, therefore exist” argument.
Augustine begins his thought with the statement thatthat people, looking into their own souls, recognize the image of God in themselves, because we exist and know about it, and love our knowledge and being. This philosophical idea corresponds to the so-called triple nature of God. Augustine develops his thought by saying that he is not afraid of any objections to the above truths from various academicians who might ask: “What if you are being deceived?” The thinker would answer that this is why he already exists. Because one who does not exist cannot be deceived.
Looking with faith in his soul, Augustine inThe result of using this argument comes to God. Descartes looks there with doubt and comes to the consciousness, the subject, the thinking substance, the main requirement of which is clarity and clarity. That is, the cogito first pacifies, transforming everything in God. Secondly, it is problematic everything else. Since, after finding the truth about one’s own existence of man, one should turn to the conquest of a reality different from the “I”, constantly striving at the same time for clarity and clarity.
Descartes himself noted the differences between his own argument and Augustine's statement in a response letter to Andreas Colvia.
Hindu parallels "think, therefore, exist"
Who said such thoughts and ideas wereinherent only in Western rationalism? In the East also came to a similar conclusion. According to S. V. Lobanov, a Russian Indologist, Descartes’s idea in Indian philosophy is one of the fundamental principles of monistic systems — Advaita-Vedanta Shankara, as well as Kashmir Shaivism, or Para-Advaita, whose most famous representative is Abhinavagupta. The scientist believes that this statement is put forward as the primary authenticity around which knowledge can be built, which, in turn, is reliable.
Value of this statement
Saying "I think, therefore I exist"belongs to Descartes. After him, most philosophers attached great importance to the theory of knowledge, and they owed him a great deal of it. This statement makes our mind more reliable than even matter. And, in particular, our own mind for us is more authentic than the thinking of others. In every philosophy that Descartes laid the foundation for (“I think, therefore I exist”) there is a tendency to the presence of subjectivism, as well as to the consideration of matter as the only subject that can be known. If at all it is possible to do this by deducing from what we already know about the nature of the mind.
This 17th century scholar has the term “thinking” for now.only implicitly includes what will later be designated by thinkers as consciousness. But on the philosophical horizon, themes of a future theory appear. In the light of Descartes' explanations, awareness of actions is presented as a hallmark of thinking.
