"I Think Therefore I Am" Explained

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-------------------------VIDEO NOTES-------------------------

"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): https://amzn.to/32SiBZd

John Cottingham, "Descartes" (chapter 2): https://amzn.to/3t8dv5M

Georges Dicker, "Descartes: An Analytical And Historical Introduction" (chapters 1-2): https://amzn.to/3HAv6re

Peter Markie, "The Cogito and its Importance", reprinted in the Cambridge Companion to Descartes: https://amzn.to/3ePTuZH

Also relevant:

For more information on rationalism - John Cottingham, "The Rationalists": https://amzn.to/336jEo5

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: https://amzn.to/3380K0p

Baron Reed's example of psychological certainty is taken from his SEP entry, "Certainty": https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ce...

------------------------TIMESTAMPS--------------------------

0:00 Introduction
1:05 1: Rationalism
3:58 2: The Evil Demon
6:36 3: The Cogito
10:16 4: Deduction or Intuition?
15:30 5: A Mistranslation of Descartes?
18:35 6: Certainty vs Truth
20:43 Closing

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