Cogito, ergo sum Cogito, ergo sum This proposition became a fundamental element of Western philosophy, as it purported to form a secure foundation for knowledge in the face of radical doubt. While other knowledge could be a figment of imagination, deception, or mistake, Descartes asserted that the very act of doubting one's own existence served—at minimum—as proof of the reality of one's own mind; there must be a thinking entity—in this case the self—for there to be a thought. Descartes first wrote the phrase in French in his 1637 "Discourse on the Method". He referred to it in Latin without explicitly stating the
Mr. Cogito collection published in Hebert's lifetime. Surprisingly religious, it contains 5 more texts with Mr. Cogito's name in the title. These are: "Pan Cogito a Małe Zwierzątko ("Mr. Cogito and a Small Animal"), "Pan Cogito. Aktualna pozycja duszy" ("Mr. Cogito. The Current Position of the Soul"), "Pan Cogito. Ars longa" ("Mr. Cogito. Ars Longa"), "Pan Cogito. Lekcja kaligrafii" ("Mr. Cogito. A Calligraphy Lesson"), "Zaświaty Pana Cogito" ("The Underworld of Mr. Cogito"). On one hand, they still show Mr. Cogito as willing to change the world around him, but, on the other, they express a final resignation to his fate. Mr. Cogito