The phrase 'Cogito, Ergo Sum' translates to 'I think, therefore I am.' It is attributed to the French philosopher Descartes, see, who expanded the phrase to 'I doubt, therefore I think, therefore I am,' or 'Dubito, ergo cogito, ergo sum.'
It is from such simple statements of concept that we have vast differences in philosophy of vast numbers of peoples. What made me think of such differences was a phrase that I read this morning on a Muslim web site. It said that the role of science was to prove the Koran was correct. Such a logical position might be described as 'I believe, therefore I am, therefore I think.' It is a very natural reaction to one emerging within the background of a Muslim, or other form of social community.
Perhaps, it is too much to ask whether or not peoples will agree to anything because they have very different attitudes as to what comes first. If you start with the premise that you begin thinking and then your thoughts arise because you become aware of yourself in the world, you will have a very different attitude from one who becomes aware of self, but does not think. The question is whether you can think without words or a language for thought. We might even ask the question of what entities can think or mediate their environment in a meaningful way in order to control it for their benefit. Obviously, there will be competition, as between animals, and plants, but there will also be cooperation and synergy, as between bacteria and humans. A bacterium may not be aware of the 'forest from the trees,' the bloodstream from the human or animal body, but it will have some sort of behaving mechanisms based on its senses, sensations, and reactions to these sensations, as in the case of moving towards light, or seeking a sensational match for a feeling portion of its anatomy!
It would seem that thinking is in large measure governed by language and words, however, the direction of one's thoughts may not be. It would seem that even though we have words and thus thoughts, we also have reactions that have nothing to do with words and thoughts. For example, we can see without using words. We can feel without using words. We can do many many things before we use words and before we start thinking by means of words.
What if belief is not something on which words are necessary, but rather something from all our other senses. I see the house, therefore I believe that the house is there. I don't think in words that the house is there. I just know in my being, or believe, that the house is there.
Well this upsets the apple cart doesn't it!
What this means is that we believe, then we are, and then we think. It is not that we think and therefore we are, at all. It is that we sense and know without thinking and this makes us what we are initially. Subsequently, we may be educated to use words and to write and to develop sophisticated philosophies, but in our beginning, we tend to believe what we see and sense without much sophisticated logic. It would seem that my Muslim writer was correct, or was he?
Sometimes we think we know what we believe, but we really don't. Believing and thinking are tools to help us cope with the world around and inside of us. Neither are sufficient for human life, nor does either have a strong priority on the other.
When we formulate a belief in thought using words we are extending things well beyond the basics. Thinking occurs without the use of words. Our brains have the capacity to work things out by interaction with the world. We might say thus that 'I operate in the world and thus I am.' Alternatively, we might say, 'I am aware that I operate in the world and therefore I am.' OK! now we are getting somewhere!
It's one's awareness that is crucial to our being. If I am aware of myself then I be. If I am dead to myself then I cease to be. In other words, if I have senses to be aware of myself, to observe myself then I am. The senses I normally have available to me are feeling, hearing, seeing, tasting, smelling. I can be without some of these senses, but I must have at least one. A single sense is enough to give me the power of being as long as I can realize that sense in some meaningful way.
One might ask whether a plant is a being. Obviously, plants have sensations because they grow and they move towards light. Therefore plants are beings. They also have senses that we as humans do not have, so they are very interesting and if given the capacity to observe themselves differently, interested beings. What we don't think they have is sight or speech. Would it not be very interesting for mankind to try to give plants and simpler animals the ability to speak and participate in our world in ways that we see as meaningful, and they presently do not understand.
Maybe, we as human beings are missing a great opportunity here. What if we could build a device that would allow simple plant to communicate with us directly. For example, such a device might be that the plant is thirsty. We would find the part of the plant that tells itself that it is thirsty and then build a device that would also tell us that it is thirsty. Over time we could locate other control points in plants that would give them other senses as well, such as the ability to hear and to see. In such a way, plants would be enabled to communicate with us more effectively.
As humans, we have a real problem giving each other a chance to understand how we, individually, feel and sense. We could greatly enrich sexual, feeding, adrenalin, smelling and other sensational experiences if this were possible. We are, however, constrained by what has gone on before, and we need to get to grips with our past mistakes to enable a more satisfying future.
Another challenge would be to give plants abilities that would help us use its abilities more effectively. For example, if plants can sense oxygen levels and could tell us exactly the level of oxygen in the atmosphere, we could use this information. The big issue would be whether plants are capable of being aware in ways that would be meaningful to us as human beings, so that we would respect them in ways that we don't presently respect them. For example, if a tree could show us the best way for it to be comfortable and grow then we would enrich or knowledge of how to develop and locate forests. Imagine trying to plant a tree and it shouting at you. "Not here, you idiot, I will not get enough sunlight and I want to live to be over a hundred years old."
We really need to get to understand this awareness thing much better. It's not only plants that could tell us things, but almost all other forms of life, some of which arose on earth long before we arrived!