FINDING that Meeeee

WHO AM I....................................

At many times, it is hard for people to specifically identify who they are. They try to discover themselves by going on a journey to search who they truly are. Descartes, a famous philosopher, did something similar. He tried to discover himself via means of meditation. In his “Meditations on First Philosophy”, he is writing about how he cannot find himself but then he derives to the conclusion that, “I think, therefore I am!” Descartes deeply explored his self because he wanted to search his true self and identify who he is. However, he did not succeed in discovering his self.

 After intensive meditation, he came out with nothing that he could hold onto as the self. But then he concluded his experience by saying that, “Ah! Well, of course I cannot find the self, it is the self that is doing the looking! The ‘I’ is the subject and so it cannot be an object. Though I cannot find it, still my knowledge that it is the absolute subject cannot be doubted. It confirms its existence by doubting its existence. Cogito ergo sum! Of this I can remain absolutely certain.” Hence, for Descartes, self exists because it thinks. 

He was looking for something he was sure is there but he could not find it. Although, his certainty was ambiguous because he could not find a concrete, fixated self, he was sure that he exists because he could think. Therefore, humans can take a first step toward identifying who they are by recognizing that they exist, their minds and bodies exist, because they can think.

 It is essential that humans acknowledge that they exist through the process of thinking and meditating because by doing so they can explore further in who they truly are and what they can become. Thinking bodies, thus, portrays that thinking leads to the existence of the body.