Possibly the best known of all philososophical quotations; this is from the French philosopher René Descartes in Discourse on Method, 1637, where he attempted to prove his existence as a thinking being, by thinking. ‘I think, therefore I am’ comes to us in English via two translations. Descartes’ original statement in French was “Je pense, donc je suis”.
‘I think, therefore I am’ means that the act of thinking presupposes the existence of the subject – the thinker. This is important because it requires no other predicates. The mere act of questioning means that there is a questioner.So there I am –Me ,the philosopher,me –the thinker . I ponder my existence and I think of : The past,the future herein the present .The mind wonders to much .The greatest gift and burden is the mind. It sways, subdues. It looks at empirical details, it coaxes me to have faith when faith is forlorn, to imbue the subtleties of perception so minute it draws out the brilliance and wonder; loss and defeat. And that, in a nutshell, is what this wonder will be about: the pursuit of happiness through knowledge of the causes of things. Or as the tagline puts it, working out the details of the physical world. . It is both tantalizing and flustering as I strengthen yet forever more faint-hearted with the greater fathoms of hesitation that engulf me. They say the skies the limit; or is it the neurotic impulses of the mind? In times when we blanch in trepidation, consternation – is the heart a decision-maker? Does following the heart follow the mind? It is the mind, me thinks, that is ultimate, for how easily is one to be tamed by the compulsions of the heart?
Here I am –never too tired to question things ,always searching for answers . Descartes is said to be the originator of modern science in that he instilled the method of doubt and reason into the general populus as this is shown to be the most effective way to truth.To fully understand what the hubbub about dualism is about you’d have to read Descartes . He is picking apart every emotion, every socially constructed norm and deciding upon it’s merit.His general conclusions about how to view the world is a viewpoint I definitely agree with and, to me, Descartes illustrated a lot of personal thoughts I had before reading the book, though I fully acknowledge his affect on modern society is so great as my own thoughts are merely the effect of his original work. I have been thinking about things all my life, BIG THINGS……from science to psychology, from film to music, from literature to daily life issues . I thought that I would share my thoughts with the world at large.So here I am and ,,There comes a time when the mind takes a higher plane of knowledge but can never prove how it got there”. – Albert Einstein
mimipopa 