# Cogito Ergo Sum

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cogito-ergo-sum/53248>\
**Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\
**Created:** [February 5, 2001, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cogito-ergo-sum/53248 "2001-02-05T20:39:55Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![marmar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@marmar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/marmar)\
**Post date:** [February 5, 2001, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cogito-ergo-sum/53248/1 "2001-02-05T20:39:55Z")

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In your column about whether or not fire is alive, a quote of Decarte’s quote appeared. Recent research in neurobiology is showing this to be an ineffective assumption. Despite my Catholic altar boy Latin, I’m not sure how to express what the researchers found, but would be something like “Sum Ergo Cogito.”

Human beings are wired such that in order for them to think, they first have to be. The lower layers of the nervous system hierarchy coupled with the chemicals coursing through the bloodstream give us our sense of self. In order for us to contemplate anything outside or even inside of ourselves, this sense of self must be available.

This is a very poor summation of what I’ve been reading in the book “The Feeling of What Happens”, but you can read it for yourself and tell me if I’ve interpreted this incorrectly.

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**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\
**Post date:** [February 5, 2001, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cogito-ergo-sum/53248/2 "2001-02-05T21:10:10Z")

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But that has nothing to do with cogito ergo sum, really.

Descartes was trying to determine if God existed. First, though, he needed a starting point for his thinking. This is where the Cogito comes in.

Cogito ergo sum. I think, therefore (I can prove to myself that) I am.

Of course people need to exist to think - that is a basic assumption of the Cogito.

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**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\
**Post date:** [February 5, 2001, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cogito-ergo-sum/53248/3 "2001-02-05T21:38:34Z")

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Welcome to the SDMB, and thank you for posting your comment.

Please include a link to Cecil’s column if it’s on the straight dope web site. To include a link, it can be as simple as including the web page location in your post (make sure there is a space **before** and **after** the text of the URL).

Cecil’s column can be found on-line at this link:  
[Why don’t we consider fire alive? What is life? (12-Dec-1997)](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a971212.html)

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moderator, «[**Comments on Cecil’s Columns**](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/forumdisplay.php?forumid=1)» \*\*

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**Author:** ![zut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zut/32/2875_2.png) [@zut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zut)\
**Post date:** [February 6, 2001, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cogito-ergo-sum/53248/4 "2001-02-06T13:12:15Z")

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The column in question was written in '97, which I asume was the AOL days. The line in question (“Cogito Ergo Sum”), Cecil says, comes from the SDMB:

> [@](#):
>
> When this question came up on the **Straight Dope message board** the other day, one confused philosopher attempted to settle the issue by saying, “Cogito ergo sum [I think, therefore I am]; fire no cogito.” Another wit replied, “If [cogito]'s the litmus test, we’re going to lose most of California.”

Anyone remember _who_, exactly, was witty enough to be quoted by CA?