Descartes before the horse

 

There's a saying in England that goes, "put the cart before the horse". It means, to do things in the wrong order; to do something contrary to the natural or normally effective sequence of events.

Years ago there was a man called René Descartes, (31 March 1596 – 11 February 1650). He was a French philosopher, mathematician, scientist, and lay Catholic who invented analytic geometry, linking the previously separate fields of geometry and algebra.

He was a writer, a thinker, a philosopher, with many thoughts and ideas which have been discussed by many ever since. 

His best known philosophical statement is "cogito, ergo sum" ("I think, therefore I am"; French: Je pense, donc je suis). 

Basically, he is saying that the fact that he thinks proves that he exists as a person or a being. What a paradox in today's modern world where there are many fatheads incapable of thinking whatsoever. But let me not digress.

Descartes might as well have said, "I eat therefore I am", or, "I reproduce therefore I am" or "I go to the toilet ... here's proof that I am!"

What I am saying is: how do you know that you are? What proof have you got that you exist?

You say that you were born, but can you remember that far? Or are you repeating what you've been told?

What if ... what if ... you don't exist at all? You are only a character in a book being read by an ostrich wearing pink underpants and a woollen hat?

Everything you have done since you were born, (or you think you were born), is only words written in a book being read by the aforementioned ostrich. And whatever else you will do from now on is only the ostrich turning a page in the said book.

You don't exist. I don't exist. No one exists. 

You reading this post now, is only your character in the book reading a Blog on a computer. 

You'd better believe it. Don't bury your head in the sand. Let the ostrich do that. 

I bet Descartes never thought of my theory before he said his "cogito ergo" thing. But then, he was not as clever as me.