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Single Idea 2870

[from 'Meditations' by René Descartes, in 11. Knowledge Aims / B. Certain Knowledge / 5. Cogito Critique ]

Full Idea

The sentence "I think" contains a series of unprovable assertions; for example, it is I who think, that it must be something at all which thinks, that thinking is by an entity thought of as a cause, that an 'I' exists, and that I know what thinking is.

Gist of Idea

'I think' assumes I exist, that thinking is known and caused, and that I am doing it

Source

comment on René Descartes (Meditations [1641], §2.26) by Friedrich Nietzsche - Beyond Good and Evil §16

Book Reference

Nietzsche,Friedrich: 'Beyond Good and Evil', ed/tr. Hollingdale,R.J. [Penguin 1973], p.28