A Philosophical Departure Based upon the Cogito (sort of)

A site on the internet was pointed out to me by my son Dean, on which someone had posted the following maxim: “I do not think, therefore, I do not am.” (Facio Non cogito, ergo, facio nom sum?) Ignoring the fallacy of denying the antecedent where Modus Tollens might have been expected, and supposing the statement not to be a logical rejoinder, but an expression of its own philosophical position, my immediate response was a desire to know how we were to account for babies and a vast number of post-modern Americans who do not think, yet are busy “am-ing.” For insofar as thought is the sine qua non of human certainty, and perhaps also of Human ontology, we must provide some room for them since it seems unlikely that Babies and post-modern Americans, by virtue of their lack of critical thought, will simply disappear.

As I have written in several places earlier in my Journals, I think I can keep the babies by demonstrating that they do indeed think and learn in utero. Alas, I cannot shoehorn the post-modern Americans into the category of being by the same mechanism. And I can think of no other means of retaining them unless it is along the line of “I text, therefore I am.”

- Todd