Floating man experiential field shows that the self is not consequently a substance and thereby there is no subjectivity. On the other hand some scholars like Wisnovsky believe that the flying man argument proved the substantiality of the soul. Ibn Sina believes that innate awareness is completely independent of sensory experience. Before the French philosopher Descartes (1596–1650) pointed out the existence of the conscious self as a turning point in epistemology, using the phrase "Cogito ergo sum," the 11th century Iranian philosopher Avicenna had referred to the existence of consciousness in the flying man argument. Thus, long before Descartes, Avicenna had established
Cogito, ergo sum familiar form of the phrase in his 1641 "Meditations on First Philosophy". The earliest written record of the phrase in Latin is in his 1644 "Principles of Philosophy", where, in a margin note (see below), he provides a clear explanation of his intent: "[W]e cannot doubt of our existence while we doubt". Fuller forms of the phrase are attributable to other authors. The phrase first appeared (in French) in Descartes's 1637 "Discourse on the Method" in the first paragraph of its fourth part: In 1641, Descartes published (in Latin) "Meditations on first philosophy" in which he referred to the proposition,