"I think, therefore I am" can be simply understood as: when I think rationally, I really get the value of existence. Reason can get rid of habits, superstitions and all kinds of so-called "established ideas" and let real thinking penetrate into one's life. Then, my existence has a real meaning.
Descartes' "I think, therefore I am" is the starting point of all Descartes' epistemological philosophy and the end point of his "universal doubt". From this point, he confirmed the legitimacy of human knowledge. That is to say, Descartes is an idealist, but not from this proposition. "I think, therefore I am" is not an idealistic proposition, but the content of pure epistemology. Descartes is an idealist, which is a conclusion drawn from his philosophical system, not from this proposition. It is neither materialism nor idealism.
An empirical philosopher's explanation:
I think "is" I am thinking "in empiricism," I am "is understood as objective existence in experience, and" cause "is causality. Therefore, this proposition is understood as: "I exist because of thinking." (Hobbes, England) Influenced by this, China's philosophical circles have long held this interpretation position, among which Miao and Li are two famous philosophers.
Their exposition in the new edition of History of Western Philosophy is as follows: "Since I am convinced that I am thinking, I must also be convinced of what I am thinking; This means affirming my existence; It is obviously contradictory and absurd to affirm that something is thinking but deny its existence.
Descartes concluded from this: I think therefore I am. The mistakes of empiricism lie in: firstly, equating "I want" with "I can think" in experience is a physiological feature and function; The second is to equate "I am" with the objective existence in experience, that is, "existence". With a counter-proposition, we can refute the empirical view that "I only exist when I think, and I don't exist when I stop thinking." The question is, where are we when we are not thinking? "
"I think" is a "thinking stipulation" existing in people's minds; "I am" refers to "the essential existence of human beings", which is the "existence" in the sense of parmenides's philosophy, not the objective existence in experience. Not "you" and "you", but "you" in the ontological sense; "Therefore" expresses a logical order and highlights the first principle of "I think".
"I think therefore I am" is understood as: people can only rely on these innate thinking rules in people's minds to decide "human behavior" It can be seen that "I think therefore I am" refers to Descartes' change from rationalism "I think therefore I am" to "I think therefore I am". This understanding complements Descartes' "theory of genius", emphasizing the transcendental nature of human thinking, and human thinking ability is the key to distinguish animals.