Descartes' "I think, therefore I am" is the most important proposition of Descartes' philosophy, which has a great influence in the history of western philosophy. However, due to translation reasons, both at home and in the west, they often fall into the category of extreme idealism and are often attacked by materialism and empirical philosophy. The original meaning of "I think therefore I am" is "I think therefore I am", but it doesn't mean that I exist because of thinking. But to realize (my) existence through thinking and know "existence" from "thinking".
To understand "I think, therefore I am", we must first understand Descartes' cognitive tool-universal doubt. Descartes believes that all existing knowledge is unreliable because it is based on unreliable foundation. "Unreliable" does not necessarily mean "untrue", but they cannot be the basis of knowledge. Therefore, Descartes put forward the method of universal doubt, arguing that the principle that everything can't be scrutinized by the method of doubt should be excluded from the basis of knowledge.
Descartes' doubts are universal, and it is generally believed that what cannot be doubted lies in Descartes' doubts. Finally, examine the last possibility, that is, can thinking doubt itself? His answer was no, so he found the first unquestionable principle-thinking. The proposition of "I think, therefore I am" was born.
Descartes said that thinking can doubt the object of thinking, but not thinking itself. Thinking itself is the activity of thinking. When thinking is in doubt, thinking can doubt all the objects and contents of thinking, but can't doubt "I am in doubt" itself, otherwise doubt can't be carried out. In other words, there must be a subject in suspicious activities, and "I" is the subject of suspicious activities. In this way, because I think "I" is in doubt, I can be sure that there is "I" as the subject of doubt.
"I think" refers to thinking activities, including all conscious activities. Whether it is rational, emotional or emotional, it belongs to "I think". On the one hand, "I think" points to the specific content and object of thinking, on the other hand, "I think" has the self-consciousness of poetic consciousness, that is, the consciousness of reflection. "So" refers not to the causal relationship between two entities, but to the inevitable connection between essence and entity. "I am" means that the "I" of the thinking subject is an entity. I think it's the same entity as me.
Descartes looked at the outside world, body and other things from another angle. Thinking about things does not prove the existence of my body, that is to say, people can think about things without relying on the body, even if the body does not exist, I can still think. This thought of separating mind from body is the basis of his dual system of mind and body, and it is his thinking on this relationship between mind and body that finally establishes his dual system of thought. In addition, his thought of separation of mind and body distinguishes between thinking and existence in the sense of modern philosophy for the first time. The thought of "I think, therefore I am" made him establish himself in doubt and doubt everything outside his heart with "self" rationalism, thus putting knowledge in the first place in philosophical research. It laid a solid foundation for the development of philosophy in the future, and also laid a decisive position for philosophy.
Descartes is a pioneer of modern rationalism philosophy. As a pioneer of rationalism, he established the decisive principle of thinking for existence by "I think, therefore I am", liberated people from the shackles of religious theology and promoted the liberation of reason. Descartes was the first to elevate human reason to the supreme position. In his view, rationality is not only the starting point of acquiring truth knowledge, but also the standard of testing the truth of knowledge. His later philosophy, whether it is continental rationalism or British empiricism, is deeply influenced by this thought. After that, the research on "I think" continued to deepen, and Husserl's philosophy of "returning to things themselves" and Sartre's existential philosophy of "reflecting on my thoughts before" appeared.