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Philosophy vocabulary · Key Thinkers' Concepts

Cogito

Meaning in philosophy, with examples

nounCommon term

In philosophy, cogito means: Descartes' argument 'I think, therefore I am', meant to show that you cannot doubt your own existence while you are thinking.

In Turkish: cogito, düşünüyorum, öyleyse varım

How it is used

Short for the Latin cogito, ergo sum; the French version (je pense, donc je suis) appears in the Discourse on Method (1637). Philosophers debate whether the cogito is really an inference, and whether it proves a self or only that thinking is going on.

Example sentences

  1. According to Descartes, the cogito survives even the most radical doubt.

  2. Critics such as Lichtenberg suggested that the cogito shows only that thinking is happening, not that there is an 'I'.

Common collocations

  • the Cartesian cogito
  • cogito, ergo sum
  • Descartes' cogito
  • certainty of the cogito
  • skepticismThe view that we do not or cannot have knowledge in some area, or the method of doubting claims until they are properly justified.
  • rationalismThe view that reason, rather than sense experience, is the main source of knowledge, and that some knowledge is innate or a priori.
  • dualismThe view that the mind and the body are fundamentally different kinds of thing, so that mental states are not simply physical states.
  • knowledgeKnowing that something is the case; traditionally defined as a belief that is true and properly justified, although this definition is disputed.

More terms: Key Thinkers' Concepts

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