I Think Therefore I Am

When René Descartes wrote these words (Cogito, ergo sum) as part of his meditations on philosophy, they were part of an elaborate, well-reasoned argument of empirical observation.  Because I (whatever “I” entails) have the ability to cognitively process and even ponder my own existence (think), I must in fact exist (as anything that has the ability to think must exist).  Descartes was a rational man who spent time questioning even his own conclusions.  His basis for reasoning and drawing conclusions, however, was factual observation or natural philosophy. 

In society today, we have lost this ability to reason and question.  We have lost the objective art of observation and sacrificed philosophy for psychology.  Our culture has twisted Descartes’ words from the philosophical, observable, objective truth of existence into a predication of psychological, unobservable, preferred state of being.  Rather than ‘I think, therefore I exist’, a rational and observable conclusion, our culture abuses the philosophical argument to state things such as, ‘I think I am a woman, therefore I am a woman’, an unverifiable, desired status.

In other words, rather than relying on the faculties of reason to evaluate the reality of our observable existence, our culture has determined to use our reasoning to define alternatives to our observable reality.