Full Idea
It seems strange that the condition under which I think is to be valid for everything that thinks, and that on an empirical-seeming proposition we can presume to ground a universal judgement, that everything that thinks has self-consciousness.
Gist of Idea
How can we infer that all thinking involves self-consciousness, just from my own case?
Source
comment on René Descartes (Meditations [1641], §2.26) by Immanuel Kant - Critique of Pure Reason A346
Book Reference
Kant,Immanuel: 'Critique of Pure Reason', ed/tr. Guyer,P /Wood,A W [CUO 1998], p.414
A Reaction
Kant is not bothered by this, and says we know it a priori. If it is indeed an empirical proposition, it becomes an induction with one instance, which is the notorious weakness of the 'argument from analogy' to other minds. The Cogito is not empirical.