Some Thoughts on I think therefore I am




I think therefore I am, said Rene Descartes. But what about those who can’t think? Those who are suffering from Alzheimer’s or are in coma or by yogic powers able to control their thought process. Don’t they exist?

By Descartes’ theory they don’t. Then how do we classify them? Do we say they don’t exist even though they do? To me, it doesn’t make sense.

I think therefore I am is one of the most profound philosophical statements ever made. Yet it is flawed according to the noted philosopher Nietzsche, who pointed out:

You have to be before you think – you can’t think first and then say you are.

If Descartes is because he thinks, then God is because we think. That’s perfectly logical and that’s what Descartes himself believed. His argument about the existence of God is based on the following points:

a)      Idea of god is of a perfect being

b)      It is more perfect to exist than not to exist

c)      Therefore, God must exist

But this argument was challenged by many during his own lifetime as it has several problems; one of them being:

how it can be possible for a finite mind to have a clear and distinct idea of an infinite God?

Also, as per David Hume, the famous Scottish philosopher, all ideas are created from experience one way or another and so we have formed the idea of God from experience by abstraction and negation.

From antiquity philosophers have argued about the existence of God and till now the debate continues. But no one seems to have the right answers. If we were to rephrase Descartes’ statement into I am because someone thought and that someone is God then that’ll create a new line of argument.

-          NZ

6.7.2019




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