Richard Watson (philosopher) Richard Watson (philosopher) Richard A. Watson (born 1931) is an American philosopher, speleologist and author. Watson taught philosophy at Washington University in St. Louis for forty years. He is considered one of the foremost living authorities on Descartes. He is an Emeritus Professor of Philosophy for Washington University in St. Louis. He has a degree in geology specializing in "paleoclimatology of 10,000 years ago." This involved the development of agrarian societies in the Fertile Crescent. From July 1965 to July 1967, he was president of the Cave Research Foundation. His book, "Cogito, Ergo Sum: a life of René Descartes" was
Cogito, ergo sum itself is good and pleasant (...) and if one who sees is conscious that he sees, one who hears that he hears, one who walks that he walks and similarly for all the other human activities there is a faculty that is conscious of their exercise, so that whenever we perceive, we are conscious that we perceive, and whenever we think, we are conscious that we think, and to be conscious that we are perceiving or thinking is to be conscious that we exist... ("Nicomachean Ethics", 1170a25 ff.) Augustine of Hippo in "De Civitate Dei" writes "Si […] fallor, sum"