Descartes’ famous quotation has almost become a cliché: an overused aphorism thrown in wild association at even the word ‘Philosophy’, but it’s beauty lies in its bold simplicity. It is most frequently translated as: “I think, therefore I am”.
The Cogito was Descartes’ ‘Archimedean Point’ in that he hoped it would resolve his own radical scepticism. Descartes had, in his Meditations, argued that even the minutest possibility of an all powerful, manipulating demon meant that we could never really be 100% about anything. This ‘reality’ could, after all, be just a Matrix, a Truman Show, or a Hunter S. Thompson trip.
However, even if everything was a deception, there must be somethingbeing deceived. The very fact that we have doubts, that we canquestion reality, shows there’s something thinking. A demon does not deceive itself, but deceives a thing - this thing, Descartes thought, was the ‘I’.
source: http://mrthinkyt.tumblr.com/post/107782397484/descartes-famous-quotation-has-almost-become-a
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