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I think, therefore I am.

René Descartes, Discourse on the Method, 1637

Philosophy

The story behind the card

The sentence comes from Part Four of Descartes's Discourse on the Method (1637), which he wrote in French, 'Je pense, donc je suis', so that readers without Latin could follow it. Descartes set out to doubt everything that could possibly be false, even his senses and his own reasoning, and found one thing he could not doubt: while he was doubting, he had to exist. The Latin form, 'cogito, ergo sum', appears in his Principles of Philosophy (1644). Descartes (1596–1650) was a French philosopher and mathematician.

Türkçe oku
Düşünüyorum, öyleyse varım.
René Descartes, Yöntem Üzerine Konuşma, 1637

Cümle, Descartes'ın 1637'de yayımlanan Yöntem Üzerine Konuşma'sının dördüncü bölümündendir. Descartes kitabı, Latince bilmeyen okurlar da izleyebilsin diye Fransızca yazmıştı; cümlenin aslı “Je pense, donc je suis” biçimindedir. Yanlış olma ihtimali bulunan her şeyden, duyularından ve kendi akıl yürütmelerinden bile şüphe etmeye girişti ve şüphe edemeyeceği tek bir şey buldu: Şüphe ettiği sırada var olmak zorundaydı. Latince biçimi “cogito, ergo sum” ise 1644 tarihli Felsefenin İlkeleri'nde geçer. Descartes (1596–1650) Fransız filozof ve matematikçiydi.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: René Descartes
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