History of Cogito ergo sum

Difference (from prior major revision) (author diff)

Changed: 3c3

In his book Discourse on Method, Descartes attempted to build up an entire philosophical system from scratch. He began with the premise of doubting everything, but determined the one thing that a doubter could not doubt was his or her own existence. Thus the formulation, "I think, therefore I am", was the starting point of his philosophy.

In his book Discourse on Method, Descartes attempted to build up an entire philosophical system from scratch, with no prior assumptions. In order to begin this undertaking, he reasoned that he would trust nothing he had assumed to be true, and began with the decision to doubt everything that he thought he knew to be true. However, this led him to conclude that the one thing that a doubter could not doubt was his or her own existence. Thus the formulation, "I think, therefore I am", was the starting point of his philosophy.

Changed: 5c5

/Talk?

	Revision 5 . . December 6, 2001 2:34 pm by Egern [A little rephrasing to better explain how this was the starting point of his philosophy.]
	Revision 4 . . December 6, 2001 2:28 pm by Egern [This is just a stub--it's been years since I studied Descartes]
	Revision 3 . . December 6, 2001 12:22 pm by Dmerrill [A contribution from Ambrose Bierce. :-)]
	Revision 2 . . December 6, 2001 7:42 am by Larry Sanger [This shouldn't just redirect to the Descartes article; it's an important topic in its own right.]
	Revision 1 . . December 5, 2001 10:56 pm by The Anome [redirect to Rene Descartes]