1. The cogito is not a logical preposition
2. It can be - like anything else - be translated into a logical preposition.
3. Then that logical proposition can be proofed.
4. Then any of those proofs can be translated back into an adjusted cogito statement.
5. The adjusted statement doesn’t always make any sense. What was - it green cows? — Metaphyzik
So, from the Principles and the Replies to the Objections, to put in this exact terms, if I understand what is meant by them, the fact through which we realise we exist is an impression¹. When we express the impression, it is an inference – an enthytema often—, this reference of course relies on intuitions².
1:
"But when we notice that we are thinking things, there is a certain first notion, which is concluded from no syllogism; nor even when someone says, I think, therefore I am, or I exist, he deduces existence from thought by a syllogism, but recognizes it as a thing known in itself by the simple observation of the mind, as is evident from the fact that, if he deduced it by a syllogism, he must first have known this greater , everything that thinks is or exists; but surely rather he learns himself, from what he experiences with himself, that it cannot be as he thinks unless he exists."
— Replies
2:
"I was not denying that we must first know what is meant by thought, existence, certainty; again, we must know such things as that it is impossible for that which is thinking to be non-existent; but I thought it needless to enumerate these notions, for they are of the greatest simplicity, and by themselves they can give us no knowledge that anything exists"
— Principles — Lionino
an enthytema often — Lionino
Is that roughly what you would argue? — Banno
But what sort of thing? I have just now said it, a thinking thing. But am I nothing besides?
And is dualism always the consequence here? — Banno
Lionino is that what you meant by an impression? — Metaphyzik
Ryle — Banno
that you cite folk who reject dualism, but apparently in its defence — Banno
Is your claim that there are two substances, or that Descartes said there were two substances? — Banno
The point is, we can be certain of some things within a context / framework. But it is only as certain as the framework within which it resides is valid.
So certainty is relative. — Metaphyzik
Does accepting a lack of knowledge impart some form of knowledge? — Benj96
I do not accept 'I think therefore I am'; I do not see how you can assume that thinking necessarily implies a thinker. — Richard Goldstein
It shows that it is not logically complete. — Metaphyzik
Ugh. Never mind — Metaphyzik
For if intellect understands itself to understand, it must first be given that it understands some thing and then understands itself to understand: for the understanding that intellect understands is of some object. Thus, either we proceed to infinity or, if we come to some first thing understood, that cannot be understanding itself, but some intelligible thing.
Summa Contra Gentiles
but also that there is recursive self-awareness of thinking — Count Timothy von Icarus
and the immediacy of this intuition is not consistent with the view expressed by other Renaissance figures who consider reflexive thinking, such as Cardano, who see a time interval elapsing between the thought and the realization that the thought is being thought (De libris propriis, ed. Ian Maclean (Milan, 2004), 328): ‘we do not know and know that we are knowing in the same moment, but a little before or after’ (‘eodem momento non intelligmus, et cognoscmus nos intelligere, sed paulo ante vel post’). — Discource on the Method, Ian Maclean translation, explanatory note 28
I am talking about these three things: being, knowing, and willing. For I am and I know and I will. In that I know and will, I am. And I know myself to be and to will. And I will to be and to know. Let him who can, see in these three things how inseparable a life is: one life, one mind, and one essence, how there is, finally, an inseparable distinction, and yet a distinction. Surely this is obvious to each one himself. Let him look within himself and see and report to me. (Confessions)
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