I Do Not Think, Therefore I Am

Descartes’ famous phrase “I think, therefore I am” (cogito, ergo sum) has been the subject of immense discussion in modern and contemporary philosophy. Is it an inference or a performance (Hintikka)? Was it a central phrase in his philosophy or did he only use it in a didactic context (Cassirer)? Is it an original idea or was it preceded by a similar idea from Augustine (Blanchet, Gilson)? Is it an enthymeme or a simple intuition, an argument, a proposition, or a tautology (Ayer, Beck, Stone)? Is it something indubitable or something that requires proof (Kant)? Could it be that Descartes ultimately doubts he exists (Sievert)? Not being interested in the philosophical discussion, I will simply suggest that Descartes’ idea became famous because it summarized three ideas that are present throughout modern European philosophy, from Spinoza to Leibniz, from Kant to Hegel, and in such a way that they became the common sense of Western modernity (as it sees itself and evaluates other modernities). The three ideas are: the primacy of reason, individual autonomy, and the doubt inscribed in the incessant search for truth.

The primacy of reason is the foundation of modern rationalism, the reverse of mistrust of the senses that often lead us to illusions, as in dreams (Descartes). Individual autonomy is the mark of the incommensurability of human beings in relation to all other entities, since only human beings are thinking entities (res cogitans) in contrast to nature, which is an inert extension (res extensa). Nature, if it exists, does not know that it exists. Only human beings know that it exists or have the idea that it exists.

Doubt is the foundation of human creativity, the ability to question everything that appears to us as true through the senses. We cannot trust what has deceived us at some point. Descartes is not a skeptic, but he uses skepticism methodically to combat it. Herein lies the search for certainty in the modern era and the concept of rigor that dominates modern science: it is not about truth, but about the relentless pursuit of truth.

Criticism from the epistemologies of the South

These three ideas constitute the pillars on which Western modernity was founded. Criticism of these three ideas has been widely exercised, both within the