"I Think Therefore I Am" Explained

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"I think, therefore I am" is perhaps the most famous phrase in the history of Western philosophy. Most people have heard it, many know what it means, but fewer still are aware of the myriad debates surrounding its meaning, translation, and success. I certainly wasn't before encountering it at university, where I chose to specialise in early modern philosophy.

This video is an introduction to "the cogito", as it is often called, and a brief exploration of some of the debates that surround it.

(A note: I refer to a horse and a horn as a Humean "simple idea" - this is not quite right: a simple idea is one which cannot be broken down into further simple ideas (such as colours, smells, etc.). To explain this nuance would have been an irrelevant detour, and the point ought still carry. A unicorn is, to correctly invoke Hume, a complex idea made up of further complex ideas, made up of simple ideas, which originate in simple impressions.)

(Note 2: Some empiricists will claim that knowledge comes *primarily* from our sense data, allowing for some limited a priori knowledge, and still call themselves empiricists.)

---------------RECOMMENDED READING----------------

René Descartes, "Meditations on First Philosophy" (meditations one and two)

John Cottingham, "Descartes" (chapter 2)

Georges Dicker, "DescartesAn Analytical And Historical Introduction" (chapters 12)

Peter Markie, "The Cogito and its Importance", reprinted in the Cambridge Companion to Descartes

Also relevant:

For more information on rationalism John Cottingham, "The Rationalists"

David Hume's epistemology is mentioned, which can be read about in his "A Treatise of Human Nature", Book I, Part 1 and Book I, Part III §5

Baron Reed's example of psychological certainty is taken from his SEP entry, "Certainty"

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