"I think, therefore I am" is the old translation of Descartes's fourth part of "Discourse on Method": "I think, therefore I am".

Descartes’ philosophical propositions (French: Je pense, donc je suis. Latin: Cogito ergo sum. German: Ich denke, also bin ich English: I think, therefore I am. West: Pienso, luego existo.), literally translated as "I think, therefore I exist."

It means: "The only thing I can be sure of is the existence of my own thoughts, because when I doubt others, I cannot doubt it at the same time." My own thoughts."

A more authoritative explanation is: "I can't deny my existence, because when I deny or doubt, I already exist!" Because when I am thinking and doubting, there must be an execution The "thinker" who "thinks", this "I" as the subject cannot be doubted. This I is not the extended physical "I", but the thinker's I. Therefore, denying one's own existence is self-contradictory.

Extended information

Descartes pointed out: This is neither a deductive reasoning nor an inductive result, but an "intuitive" proposition.

"I think, therefore I am" can be succinctly understood as: when I use reason to think, I truly gain the value of existence. Reason can break away habits, superstitions and various so-called "established concepts", allowing real thinking to penetrate into one's life. Then, my existence will have real meaning.

In the eyes of people who firmly believe in empiricism and materialism, Descartes has a fatal handle in his hands, and that is his famous saying that has echoed for centuries: "I think. Therefore I am.”

This famous saying, which Descartes regarded as the starting point of his philosophical system, was considered to be the general representative of extreme subjective idealism in Eastern European and Chinese academic circles, and was severely criticized. Many people even use arguments such as "existence must precede consciousness" and "without a body, there can be no thought" and think that Descartes is "putting the cart before the horse" and "ridiculous".