Chapter 5, Part 5. I think therefore I am or ‘Cogito ergo sum’ (no you don’t!)

Within the hippy field I heard a few people discuss the complexities of the saying ‘I think therefore I am’. The basic perception was that Descartes was alluding to the fact that only animals and humans think therefore nothing else is alive, cutting out the possibility of things such as trees and plants as being labelled living. Unfortunately, those having this discussion got it wrong. The saying was not alluding to this concept at all. In fact the argument regarding this saying is quite complex and very difficult to explain. Yet this is why I am here, so let’s see if I can dumb it down a little (for both of us).

Descartes had a philosophy (which was listed as radical thought at the time) that what we perceive or sense is not necessarily true. The only thing that is true is that our mind or consciousness may doubt or believe in its perception. Therefore the statement ‘I think therefore I am’ is actually not saying that just because I think I exist, it’s stating that because we think, we believe we exist.

From what I can comprehend the main issue that people debate is more to do with how you decide to read the above statement rather than the statement itself. To be truthful, it was hard reading highly educated philosophy students debate the finer lines between Descartes’s overall belief system and this specific saying. And although I have high respect for those that have chosen philosophy as a line of study I find the debate gets caught up in semantics rather than just taking this saying for what it is. But, as this saying is about perception I guess that was the point in the first place. Soooooooo, how do I break this down?

Philosophy – it’s dependent on how you want to interoperate the saying based on the knowledge of the philosophy of Descartes himself and reflective of your own or other philosophical beliefs.

Hippies – It’s true, just because we think it doesn’t put us above other life forms on this planet, yet, this is not exactly what the statement was meant to convey therefore you may want to re-read this chapter again.

Science Nerds – Quantum Mechanics shows that life is all around us and that light and energy is life. We are one with it as it is one with us. We are star stuff as popularly discussed. Therefore, because our human perception is so limited we actually have no idea what reality actually is.

Religion – You think because God told you to (if you are religious and read this blog I hope you have a great sense of humour).

Jo Blow – There are a lot of cool things that are out there that can make you question your reality. Try looking up black holes and quantum for instance. Reality is your perspective as I have repeated time and time again. Truth is a matter of what you believe in. The way that the human consciousness accepts reality is through an extremely small and limited viewpoint. And for this reason people somehow are able to believe that the world is flat, smart woman are witches, the dress was white and gold (not blue and black), lizard people run the world and of course, aliens abducted 50% of the population in the 80’s (they must of gotten tired of us after that). Anyway…

So there is a great chance I missed the point completely regarding ‘I think therefore I am’ in this blog, but, this is my perception and in many way’s that was the point… Right?… Yea, High five! Who’s with me?…. Ummmmm…… Anybody?….