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 Cogito and Pure Thought"), "Pan Cogito czyta gazetę" ("Mr. Cogito Reads A Newspaper"), "Pan Cogito a ruch myśli" (" Mr. Cogito and the Motion of Thought"), "Domy przedmieścia" ("Houses On The Outskirts Of The City"), "Alienacje Pana Cogito" ("Mr. Cogito's Alienations"), "Pan Cogito obserwuje zmarłego przyjaciela" ("Mr. Cogito Watches a Deceased Friend"), "Późnojesienny wiersz Pana Cogito przeznaczony dla kobiecych pism" ("Mr. Cogito's Late Autumn Poem For Women's Magazines"), "Pan Cogito rozważa różnice między głosem ludzkim a głosem przyrody" ("Mr. Cogito Considers the Difference Between the Human Voice And The Voice of Nature"), "Pan Cogito biada nad małością snów" (Mr. Cogito