"I think, therefore I am": the one certainty radical doubt cannot dissolve, since doubting itself proves a thinking self exists.
In lecture order, as Marci Shore presents each view. The time opens that minute of the lecture on YouTube.
Even if a demon has planted every thought in my head, the thinking itself is happening, so I must exist: "cogito, ergo sum."
Put simply Descartes: even if a demon had put every thought in my head, I would still be thinking, so I must exist. Hence "cogito, ergo sum": I think, therefore I am.
Modern philosophy's basic trouble is that it has no ground to stand on. The remedy is Descartes' experiment: discard everything you think you know and ask what survives as certain.
Put simply Husserl: modern philosophy's basic problem is that it has nothing solid to build on. The fix is Descartes' experiment: throw out everything you think you know and ask what you can still be certain of.
Descartes starts from thinking and Husserl from thinking about an object; Heidegger starts from existing. That I am comes before anything I think: being precedes knowing.
Descartes's cogito, Husserl's transcendental ego, Heidegger's Dasein, Sartre's radical freedom: each keeps an indubitable self at the center, and Foucault's early work revolts against that sovereign subject.
Put simply Foucault's early work rebels against the "sovereign subject": the self that philosophers from Descartes to Husserl, Heidegger and Sartre kept at the center as the one thing beyond doubt.
2 links between claims that both use the term. Each shows the earlier claim, then the later one that answers it. “Our inference” marks a link Shore does not state outright.
DescartesEven if a demon has planted every thought in my head, the thinking itself is happening, so I must exist: "cogito, ergo sum." L2 · 15:49
HeideggerDescartes starts from thinking and Husserl from thinking about an object; Heidegger starts from existing. That I am comes before anything I think: being precedes knowing. L12 · 20:46
"I am, therefore I think": existing precedes knowing
DescartesEven if a demon has planted every thought in my head, the thinking itself is happening, so I must exist: "cogito, ergo sum." L2 · 15:49
FoucaultDescartes's cogito, Husserl's transcendental ego, Heidegger's Dasein, Sartre's radical freedom: each keeps an indubitable self at the center, and Foucault's early work revolts against that sovereign subject. L21 · 8:47
Rejects the cogito as the sovereign ground from which knowledge starts
Throughlines that pass through one of these claims.
Terms that appear in the same claims.