Contrary to popular opinion, the statement “I think therefore I am” can, in fact, be refuted. You can deny your own existence. It doesn’t even have to be illogical to do so, either. We have something that “looks out”, and that is what most people consider their own personal “I am”. This is what Descartes is talking about in his famous statement: we are, that cannot be denied. If we denied it, then what is doing the denying? Whatever that is, that must be the “I am”. Without it, we could not do anything at all, because we would not be anything at all to do it. But could it not be just an illusion? What if that which looked out were actually an extension of a greater thing that looked out, which you were not aware of, that lends you the sensation of authentic consciousness? That other knows what it is to look out for real, you just think you do. That would mean your “I am” is not, not really. It’s just borrowed, it is only a leaf on a tree, and is not the being that is actual, that is the tree, like it thinks. And that’s within logic. If one were not to take logic for granted, we could go to town on Descartes’ irrefutable. Then nothing is sure, and you know what? We do take logic for granted. Nothing really to say that logic has to be how things work, just a history that it does. Something you might want to think about.
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