Ouroboros
A serpent eats its own tail—and time becomes a circle.
Opening lines of Descartes’ "Discourse on the Method," 1637 CE
- ID:
- 001-008
- Discipline:
- Philosophical
- Era:
- Enlightenment
- Civilization:
- France
- Medium:
- Quote
In 1637, the French philosopher wrote a sentence that would become one of the most famous declarations in the history of thought: 'Cogito, ergo sum' — 'I think, therefore I am.' It was not a statement of pride, but of survival. Descartes had stripped everything away — belief, sensation, even the physical world — in search of something that could not be doubted. What remained was the act of doubting itself. The mind, in motion. The awareness of thought. That flicker of self-recognition became his proof of existence. 'Cogito, ergo sum' is often misunderstood as cold logic, but at its core is something intimate and radical: the idea that consciousness is the foundation of being. That even if all else is illusion, the fact that we are asking, wondering, thinking — means we are. It is the root of the modern self, the turning point where philosophy shifted inward. In those three words, a new world emerged: one in which truth begins not in the heavens, but in the mind of the seeker.
Artifact Origin
Opening lines of Descartes’ "Discourse on the Method," 1637 CE
- ID:
- 001-008
- Discipline:
- Philosophical
- Era:
- Enlightenment
- Civilization:
- France
- Medium:
- Quote
Artifact Origin
In 1637, the French philosopher wrote a sentence that would become one of the most famous declarations in the history of thought: 'Cogito, ergo sum' — 'I think, therefore I am.' It was not a statement of pride, but of survival. Descartes had stripped everything away — belief, sensation, even the physical world — in search of something that could not be doubted. What remained was the act of doubting itself. The mind, in motion. The awareness of thought. That flicker of self-recognition became his proof of existence. 'Cogito, ergo sum' is often misunderstood as cold logic, but at its core is something intimate and radical: the idea that consciousness is the foundation of being. That even if all else is illusion, the fact that we are asking, wondering, thinking — means we are. It is the root of the modern self, the turning point where philosophy shifted inward. In those three words, a new world emerged: one in which truth begins not in the heavens, but in the mind of the seeker.
