The cogito is probably one of the most famous things in all philosophy, but it's also one of the most misunderstood. Buckle up, everybody, this video is going to get philosophical. The cogito goes back to Descartes' Meditations, and it's the starting principle of his entire work. Descartes asks us to imagine that everything might just be a dream, or it could be an illusion. We might be living in the Matrix or the deception of an evil demon. And into this radical doubt, he asks, 'Can we be sure of anything at all?' And he says, 'Yes, we can know that we exist,' because Descartes says that if we are doubting, if we are having these questioning thoughts, or any thoughts at all, that must mean that there is something doing that thinking. There is something doing that thinking, and that thinking is me. And then we have, 'I think, therefore I am.' Most people misunderstand the cogito as being an argument. They think it is a conclusion that comes from premises. And, to be fair, the word 'therefore' does kind of hint at that. But this isn't right, because Descartes has said that our ability to argue, our ability to rationalise, and to philosophise might also be compromised by the demon. It could be a part of the Matrix. And so, instead, the cogito has to be a self-justifying truth. This means that existence has to be necessarily and absolutely tied to the concept of a thought. If I say to you, 'Here is a three-sided shape,' you have to say to me, 'There is a triangle.' If I say to you, 'Here is a thought,' you have to say, 'Oh, well, there is a thinking thing.' The cogito is brilliant philosophy, and it rests on the everyday fact we all know all of the time. I am talking to you right now. I am thinking right now, and if I am thinking, then I exist. — TikTok de @philosophyminis