A better version of the cogito

 Descartes is known for the aphorism: “I think; therefore, I am.”

The French version appeared in 1637 in Discourse on Method. The Latin Cogito ergo sum appeared in 1644 in Principles of Philosophy.

In between was Meditations on First Philosophy, published in 1641. It’s the book that Bertrand Russell recommended in his short overview of philosophy. 

Meditations doesn’t include the cogito, but it makes the point this way:

 

I am, I exist, is necessarily true each time that I pronounce it, or that I mentally conceive it.

 

He tacks on this explanation:

 

… to speak accurately I am not more than a thing which thinks, that is to say a mind or a soul, or an understanding, or a reason, which are terms whose significance was formerly unknown to me. I am, however, a real thing and really exist; but what thing? I have answered: a thing which thinks.

 

Meditations is an interesting statement of Descartes’s philosophy. In my edition, it’s 73 pages long. There are six meditations, and Descartes recommended one a night for those who found the whole book too much for one sitting.

He admitted that each meditation provided a lot to think about.

• Source: René Descartes, A Discourse on Method and Other Works; New York, Washington Square Press, 1965, pp. 21 and 23.