The Concept of the Cartesian Cogito

Title

Description

he example of one of the best-known signed philosophical concepts, that of the Cartesian cogito, Descartes's I: a concept of self. This concept has three components—doubting, thinking, and being (although this does not mean that every concept must be triple). The complete statement of the concept qua multiplicity is "I think 'therefore' I am" or, more completely, "Myself who doubts, I think, I am, I am a thinking thing." According to Descartes the cogito is the always-renewed event of thought.

The concept condenses at the point I, which passes through all the components and in which I' (doubting), I" (thinking), and I"' (being) coincide. As intensive ordinates the components are arranged in zones of neighborhood or indiscernibility that produce passages from one to the other and constitute their inseparability. The first zone is between doubting and thinking (myself who doubts, I cannot doubt that I think), and the second is between thinking and being (in order to think it is necessary to be).

Date Created

1991

Is Part Of

What Is Philosophy?

Source

"Deleuze, Gilles and Félix Guattari. 1994. What Is Philosophy? Translated by Hugh Tomlinson and Graham Burchell. Columbia University Press. Pages 56-57.

Deleuze, Gilles and Félix Guattari. 1991. Qu'est-ce que la philosophic? Les Editions de Minuit."