Therefore I am
As humans, we inevitably look towards the meaning of our life. What created it? Why do we exist? Why can’t we artificially create it? What happens in death?
Our lives are full of questions that may never be answered. We may or may not find these answers, but nonetheless, we seek.
Here, we turn to philosophy: the study of the fundamental nature of the universe, knowledge, humanity, reality, and existence. But how do we know that reality as we know it exists? Furthermore, how do we know we exist?
“I think therefore I am”
We’ll come back to this quote in a second, but first:
A Little History Lesson
To provide a little bit of context, philosophers have always been questioning the world around them. Whether that be during the reign of the Ancient Greeks or during the renaissance, the most moving philosophers have been born of a time of conflict and self-reflection in the world.
René Descartes was a philosopher born of the renaissance and made popular by his radical ideas on humanity and the essence of existence. But to understand why his philosophies were so life-changing, and why, in particular, “I think; therefore I am” was such a powerful statement, the time period and history of the Renaissance, especially regarding religion, have to be taken into account.
Religious Roles in Society
The world during the Renaissance was very different than the world we see today. First, it was a time of reformation, a new birth for the arts, music, philosophy, and even religion. Considering the fact that Renaissance literally means rebirth in french, the time period was appropriately named for the realignment of ideals and creativity that it brought to 15th and 16th century Europe.
For a long time, humanity thought of itself as the most intelligent thing they knew. It was ingrained in their beliefs that God, and by extension, the Catholic Church were the catalysts of all that went on in the world. To put it simply, God was the reason everything happened, from stars forming to human life, God was the reason for creation, existence, and death. The Church was the word of God coming to Humanity. Everything the Catholic Church did was in direct alignment with God's word and will, and any that opposed it would go straight to hell in the afterlife.
Likewise, the Truth was the word of god. The only correct set of behaviors that would earn someone the right to a place in heaven was the word of God.
For people living then, the only thing that mattered was living according to the word of God, to earn a place in the afterlife. And since everyday roles surrounded the Church, all of life was also dedicated to the Catholic church and the study of the bible and its practices.
However, as the Renaissance came about, and then the Protestant reformation, The one correct set of behaviors that humans had to abide by started to change in the face of the religious reformation. People were sacred; all they believed in and put their lives in could be wrong. And sowing seeds of doubt into the roots of the Catholic Church came easy then. If one couldn’t trust one piece of what the Church had been telling them, how much could they trust? How could they know what was correct? How to live their lives?
As a result, people started questioning aspects of everyday life: the role of government, if it was wrong, the way the universe formed. In the end, there were only small amounts of people that didn’t succumb to the doubt placed in their view of life.
If we start questioning everything, can we know anything for certain?
The Beginning: How do we know?
Descartes sought to alleviate this thought. He thought that to know certain truths in the universe by readily abolishing everything he thought he knew and starting over.
In fact, he proposed that to get to know the Truth; one had to establish first principles (it’s not a coincidence that one of the basic frameworks for solving a problem is first principles thinking).
- One had to disregard all that they thought they knew. This meant getting rid of all assumptions, opinions, and facts that they thought were rooted in fact. One had to be left with a blank slate.
- Establish certain truths. Meaning a small number of truths that had to be certain to make sense for the world. These truths had to be undeniably, and irrefutably true without any room for argument.
- Arrive at more truths through rigorous logic and reasoning. Thus creating a web of ideals and personal truths rooted in fact and reason.
Through incomparable doubt and questioning of all the ideas humans had subjected themselves to believing, Descartes created truths and morals that he could follow because he knew them to be true.
“I must, once and for all, seriously undertake to rid myself of all the opinions which i had previously accepted, and commence to build anew from the foundation if I wanted to build anything firm and lasting in the sciences” — René Descartes
For him, there had to be no room left for doubt, no holes in his arguments. Otherwise, his philosophies would be picked apart by skeptics who thought there was no way to know anything for certain in the universe (to an extent, I believe this is still true today).
He said:
“Reason already persuades me, that I aught no less carefully withhold my assent from matters which are not entirely certain and indubitable, then from those which appear to me manifestly to be false. If I am able to find, in each one some reason to doubt, this will suffice to justify my rejecting of the whole”
Meaning, if one thing is doubtable, his whole argument falls apart.
How does one really question their reason for existence, the essence of life, the truth we are told? How do we even start attacking a faceless enemy?
Descartes started by asking the small questions. The easy questions…
…Then he went deeper into doubt…
…And deeper…
…Deeper…
…So deep that eventually, he starts to question what he is, if he is real if the world that he sees around him is real…
I think, therefore I am
Descartes concluded that he is real, that humans are real because they can doubt their existence. It sounds silly, but if you stop and take a look, it’s simple and true.
You are you because you can think. Because you have opinions because you can doubt and question.
See, in the “Philosophize This!” podcast, Stephen West says that:
Everyone has a somewhat black and white view of looking at a certain issue. It helps make them feel like they’re experts on a certain topic when they’re really just as clueless as the next person. They were just willing to mask it so that they don’t look stupid
To a degree, I agree, everyone has that one subject they think they are experts in. Maybe a college degree, maybe decades of work poured into a niche field, maybe 10 minutes on a conspiracy blog. Everyone has “their” subject.
But if no one is really an expert in their subject, to what extent can we know that the universe's truths are really true.
Déscratés said that we could start with truths. One of these being: I think, therefore I am. But how do we know it’s true?
In this day and age, it is not uncommon to see things that are not alive speak to us. “Think” in a way. If you’ve ever had an Amazon Alexa or Siri installed on your phone, you know that these devices are always listening. They store data and bring it out to accommodate preferences based on that data. In a way, that is coherent thought. Taking multiple data points and creating a pattern.
There have been multiple robots; machines made, that think close to how a human would. Machines that can play games, outsmart humans, speak like them. So what makes them excluded from the truth of humanity?
You could say it is their inability to doubt yet… but with the progress being made in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, within the next several decades, there will be machines that do just that. Doubt ideas.
To take a step further, even if we were to say that what makes humans alive, what makes humans as a race, human, is that we are able to think critically, make decisions, have emotions, be. Then who is to say that all these things haven’t been artificially created?
If we believe in God and religion, are we following a set plan? Are we living in a dream? Do we have free will? Or is all this part of the plan that God set up for us? Each and every little story is crafted by their hand.
After all, you don’t know you are dreaming until you wake up.
But the essence of this simple phrase (and yes, I am going to repeat it): I think therefore I am” is not in its absolute certainty of humankind. Neither is it in truth itself.
The quote itself, I believe, is intentionally vague. I think, who am I? Why do we care about this I? Therefore I am: Are what? Is this the same, I? How many beings can one be?
Truthfully, I believe Déscratés is taking humankind's curiosity, our supposed free will, and turning it to symbolize our nature. The fact that humans, as a whole, cannot stop thinking. If we stop, we die. Our body may not, but our minds, everything that makes us human will die. Thus, becoming an empty carcass of what we once were.
I think, therefore I am
To be human, to be alive, one has to think. To have any semblance to a life beyond just surviving, there have to be thoughts. The difference between surviving and living life is the presence of thought, curiosity, doubt, and emotion, and these things make us human, what makes us alive.
Our whole journeys can be set out for us. We can be made to follow a certain path. But because we can think, because we have this ability of “free thought,” there is always the possibility of being more of “gaining” potential to be.
Disclaimer:
these are all my interpretations of Friedrich Nietzsche’s “God is dead” and “will to power,” nothing should be taken as absolute truth. (:
Contact me @:
- liasepiashvilii@gmail.com
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/leah-sepiashvili-486a20192/