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Mark_Friedenbach comments on My Skepticism - Less Wrong Discussion

2 Post author: G0W51 31 January 2015 02:00AM

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Comment author: [deleted] 31 January 2015 03:54:53PM 1 point [-]

A better translation (maybe -- I don't speak french) would be "I think, I am". Or so said my philosophy teacher..

Comment author: Kindly 31 January 2015 05:58:42PM *  3 points [-]

That seems false if taken at face value: "ergo" means "therefore", ergo, "Cogito ergo sum" means "I think, therefore I am". Also, I have no clue how to parse "I think, I am". Does it mean "I think and I am"?

There's probably a story behind that translation and how it corresponds to Descartes's other beliefs, but I don't think that "I think, I am" makes sense without that story.

(A side note: it's Latin, not French. I originally added here that Descartes wrote in Latin, but apparently he originally made the statement in French as "Je pense donc je suis.")