cogito

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is paradoxical in that certainty is found in the 'certainty of the representation of doubt'.

One of the most influential approaches in Western civilization is given by Descartes. In attempting to find an answer to the question of what is the most certain, Descartes came to the conclusion that there is no way to deny the very existence of the doubting self-the Cartesian ego. In this ego we get certainty because the existent appears in front of us as a representation which this ego projects. The existence is understood as objectivity of representation, and truth as certainty of representation. This means that knowledge about anything is known to conform to the process of re-presenting self-consciousness. In short, knowledge can be understood within the domain of the subject-object relationship. It is in this self-consciousness that the nature of human existence has been examined in the tradition of Cartesian philosophy. (Nagami 1981 : 283)

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