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Single Idea 3607

[from 'A Discourse on Method' by René Descartes, in 11. Knowledge Aims / B. Certain Knowledge / 4. The Cogito ]

Full Idea

While I decided to think that everything was false, it followed necessarily that I who thought thus must be something; the truth 'I think therefore I am' was so certain that the most extravagant scepticism could never shake it.

Gist of Idea

In thinking everything else false, my own existence remains totally certain

Source

René Descartes (A Discourse on Method [1637], §4.32)

Book Reference

Descartes,René: 'Discourse on Method/The Meditations', ed/tr. Sutcliffe,F.E. [Penguin 1968], p.53