Incorrigibility Incorrigibility In philosophy, incorrigibility is a property of a philosophical proposition, which implies that it is necessarily true simply by virtue of being believed. A common example of such a proposition is René Descartes' "cogito ergo sum" ("I think, therefore I am"). Johnathan Harrison has argued that "incorrigible" may be the wrong term, since it seems to imply (by the dictionary definition) a sense that the beliefs cannot be "changed", which isn't actually true. In Harrison's view, the incorrigibility of a proposition actually implies something about the nature of "believing"—for example, that one must exist in order to believe—rather than
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"