Cogito, ergo sum (See CSMK III 159, 161.) Another predecessor was Avicenna's "Floating Man" thought experiment on human self-awareness and self-consciousness. The 8th century Hindu philosopher Adi Shankara wrote in a similar fashion, No one thinks, 'I am not', arguing that one's existence cannot be doubted, as there must be someone there to doubt. The central idea of "cogito, ergo sum" is also the topic of Mandukya Upanishad. Spanish philosopher Gómez Pereira in his 1554 work "De Inmortalitate Animae", published in 1749, wrote ""nosco me aliquid noscere, & quidquid noscit, est, ergo ego sum"" ("I know that I know something, anyone who knows
Cogito and the History of Madness operative norms of his language and project of self-reflection. Cogito and the History of Madness "Cogito and the History of Madness" is a paper by Jacques Derrida that critically responds to Michel Foucault's book the "History of Madness". In this paper, Derrida questions the intentions and feasibility of Foucault's book, particularly in relation to the historical importance attributed by Foucault to the treatment of madness by Descartes in the "Meditations on First Philosophy". Derrida's paper began a high-profile exchange between Derrida and Foucault as well as a considerable amount of attention from scholars. Foucault responded directly to Derrida in an