# I See, Therefore I Am

> And finally, when I considered that the very same thoughts
> (presentations) which we experience when awake may also be
> experienced when we are asleep, while there is at that time not
> one of them true, I supposed that all the objects (presentations)
> that had ever entered into my mind when awake, had in them no
> more truth than the illusions of my dreams. But immediately upon
> this I observed that, whilst I thus wished to think that all was
> false, it was absolutely necessary that I, who thus thought,
> should be something; And as I observed that this truth, I THINK,
> THEREFORE I AM, was so certain and of such evidence that no ground
> of doubt, however extravagant, could be alleged by the Sceptics
> capable of shaking it, I concluded that I might, without scruple,
> accept it as the first principle of the philosophy of which I
> was in search.
>
> Rene Descartes, "Discourse on the Method"



It is not well-known. But Descartes did some Zhuang Zi thing around
the cogito.

My answer to it is similar to the post "Zhuang Zi And Butterfly".
Although I think that unthinkable things corresponding to the
unconsciousness also exist,

> To be is to be percieved.
>
> George Berkeley, "A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human
> Knowledge"

Dreams are not illusions. Because you percieve them. And those
contain deep truths. Things are simply more vivid or less. People
usually call more vivid things "real". But both are real. Descartes
thought that both could be fake instead.

However the cogito still has truths.

> The world is my representation.
>
> Arthur Schopenhauer, "The World as Will and Representation"

Seeing things means you having eyes in the end.

The first principle should be "I see, therefore I am".



(Theory) = (Sense). Observation statements and theoretical statements
are not distinguishable.

Logic is climbing ladders from a proposition to another. To explore.

Hence "I think, therefore I am" equals to "I see, therefore I am".



As above, so below. The macrocosmos and the microcosmos correpond.
Atman and Brahman are the same. Studying the world is a self-reflection.
And vice versa. Develop the self. Find the inner gold.