Do you Think the Statement (Essay Sample)

Do you think the statement, “I think, therefore I am” by René Descartes is true? Why?"
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The statement “I think, therefore I am,” is a translation of a Latin statement “Cogito ergo sum.” Rene Descartes postulated the philosophical statement to logically confirm his existence. Descartes used a skeptical approach towards knowledge to find something that was certainly true to make a foundation for his philosophy. He concluded that even if he doubted he was thinking, he had to exist to doubt (Duncan, 2008). Therefore, he came up to the conclusion, “I think, therefore I am.” I think the statement is not true. Descartes’ statement has fallacies that make it questionable.
Taking a close examination of the statement makes the statement questionable by imagining that “I” exists before making that conclusion. The statement suggests that a person must exist to think and make the conclusion that he or she exists. Some people take this statement as a fact; however, it has an apparently irrefutable point (Clarke, 2006). A statement, which assumes its conclusion before the actual conclusion lacks credibility.
Other philosophers such as Bertrand Russell and Friedrich Nietzsche question the validity of Descartes’ statement. The false validity of the statement depends on grammar in a metaphysical environment. There is a subject, “I”, doing the thinking while the same subject’s existence is put into doubt. Therefore, it is controversial to think we are doing the thinking. Additionally, if we do not form the thinking, but the thinking only brings itself to us, then there is no evidence that “I” exists. According to Clarke (2006), Russell and Nietzsche are great philosophers. The two philosophers agree that something exists to think, but Descartes’ thinking makes the conclusion intuitional. Descartes’s statement does not logically prove a person’s existence. The conclusion from his statement lacks the logical worthiness, even with the degree to which it pleas to the intuition that we, in fact, exist (Duncan, 2008). On this line of thinking, it does not mean that there is no existence. It means that to prove existence through philosophical grounds is impossible. It is better to pursue a different line of thinking than Descartes’ thinking.
As philosophical thinking cannot prove the existence of human beings, I consider that the facts of existence are found beyond the realm of philosophy. The proof of existence is possible outside reasoning in other areas such as religion and historical backgrounds. On those grounds, we simply have to believe that we live as real skeptics that are not sure of their existence. In the first place, a person must exist to think in the. Therefore, we can prove existence by the use of other means outside reasoning. If we use reasoning to prove existence, we shoul...