Alyssa Brewer

December 2, 2010.

Cogito.

“Cogito ergo sum”, is a simple Latin phrase that has provoked thoughts, in not only myself, but by society. This philosophical statement has caused humans to question our beliefs, ideas, and our own existence. “I think, therefore I am,” seems a basic enough question. If I have the power to think, I must be in control and alive. As I began to explore possibilities, think about creation, the human psyche, and the power of the human body, I was not only intrigued, but I soon became distressed.

Rene Descartes was a French philosopher, mathematician and scientist. He considered himself to be a “thinking thing”, which proves that he exists because he is able to doubt, which then proves he is thinking. I’m sure the majority of society automatically assumes that he/she is a real, living thing, but when thought about, other possibilities of our existence have arisen. A couple of these possibilities consider the idea that we may be just a dream, and a butterfly or other animal is “living the life of a human. Another being that we just think that we are thinking, the power of a human thinking, in a first person view, is just presupposed. The idea of thought could just be there, but is in fact not real.

Bernard Williams was a moral philosopher who contributed on interpretations of previous philosophers, such as Rene Descartes and added, as well as explored other ideas of the cogito argument. Although it was not stated whether or not Bernard agreed or opposed the idea of knowing the idea of a first person thought, he was open about either possibility. His argument against the thought was simply the “I” factor of the statement. He proposed that although the thought was “I think”, and seemed as though it is a first-person view, and from a third-person view, they were just “thought-events”. Thought-events meaning that it is just a known fact that we are thinking, and was presupposed by our “thinker”. However, Bernard Williams could not conclude one of these two possibilities were correct, and the other wrong. There was no way for him to prove that Rene Descartes was “ruled” or “controlled” by another person, because there was no way for him to be inside his mind. He did not have the power to decide if anyone was “in a” or “just a” third person perspective. Bernard Williams and Rene Descartes were really just arguing over the same thing, but Rene Descartes’ idea was that he could only decide for himself no one really knows if he thought it was the same for all humanity, or just himself, whereas Bernard Williams covered both ideas. No one is to say if either idea is correct or incorrect. For the most part, I assume that we are of course, real. In Rene Descartes’ experiments and points, he observed that he could use all of his senses, and was able to feel everything. He could smell, touch, feel, hear and see everything and recognize it all. Another way he attempted to prove his own existence was that he imagined that a round piece of wax could turn to a square shape, followed by a triangular

shape. He willed it to change; he imagined that it would change. The shape of the wax did not change, and nor did he. Again, my initial thought to this is that I am real. Everyone around me is real. We can all think for ourselves and I am in control of my life, and my life alone. But as I sat down to write this paper, I could not. I realized that nor did I truly understand the phrase, I had neither explored any other possibilities. The idea that I am not actually real or in control festered with me throughout the day. Not usually do I talk about my essay topics with my peers, or think about them throughout the day and have them bother me so much I need to come home and talk to my parents about it. But this one, I did. I began thinking about death, the universe, creation, and the power of our brain and the cells that inhibit it. The cells that not only make my own body function, but the cells that make everything happen. It his hard for me to believe that I myself am just a dream, due to the fact that I can feel, see, hear, touch, and realize it, but that I can really feel it. And the fact that the emotions I have toward this thought are all to real to be just imagined, and especially by another being. I was showed a picture of how similar a brain cell is to the universe, which made me think of the power of a brain cell. Brain cells have the ability to create a person’s actions, and perhaps the thoughts. So I thought what if there is no Earth. What if there is no universe, no space, no people or animals. What if somehow, there are just cells that can live whatever they want. As absurd and unrealistic as that may be, who has the right to say? What if there is only that one cell, and it has created one world, and you just happen to be in it. Maybe that one cell is one person, and you are in that one person’s dream. Dreams are an experience when you are sleeping, and yet another topic I felt I needed to have more understanding about to finally have an answer to my answer of this paper. Dreams are another dimension of experience, and one that I can safely say that I have not explored. I began thinking of dreams I have had in the previous years of my life. The dreams that have intrigued me to go forward and learn more about the topic are the ones that you can feel or will the character in your dream to do. People wake up screaming and crying because what they have felt in what seems to be a “simple” dream. What seems strange to me about this is that you can still feel or think in a dream. When Rene Decartes states that he exists because he can feel things, which you couldn’t if a butterfly was dreaming, could be untrue. You could argue this by saying you don’t feel the outcome of your dreams until you waken, but that again is untrue. The vast majority of the world’s population has thought about living a dream, or

perhaps, the dream. Many people also at times wish they could be someone they aren’t.

Virtual worlds have been created so that it is possible to like a different life. Virtual worlds, or

virtual games, are online communities that let a person create avatars, perhaps a model of

themselves or who they would like to be, and interact with others. You control the life of that

model. You control the actions. The 1999 film, The Matrix, is a film based entirely on a

“dream” life. Through machines, humans were allowed to enter this dream world, and not

even know it in reality. Once the characters found out what was happening, they were aware

that this world was not the real world, but others were trapped in this dream world. Stranger

than Fiction is a 2006 American film that is based on Harold Crick’s life. To Harold, his life was

normal, until he heard a voice saying his every move. Did this voice know his every move, or

was this voice telling him what to do? This question was never answered in the movie, but

would it be answered in real life?

Would we know if someone was controlling us? Would we know if someone knew our

thoughts, our feelings, and was in complete control of our whole life? Unfortunately, there is

no way to know. There is no way to know about anything about our existence, or the universe

in which we live. The people who may know the answer have passed on. We know death. We

see death and we hear of death. But if this life is just a dream, it is possible that information of

people passing on, is just information. Perhaps, when we were put in this dream, our “thinking

thing” owner had created this intelligence for us.

No one can prove what is real and what is not. The fact that I choose to believe that I

am real, that my existence and the existence of society is real, is what I hope and believe. The

emotions I feel, the thoughts I have, and the things I believe are mine. They belong to me and

are far too real to be controlled by another being or power.