Thoughts on "The Cogito"

This post was motivated by a recent google search which lead to my blog: "arguments against cogito." Unless I am mistaken, and much more popular than I suspected, this googler was looking for a response to a famous statement in philosophical history, not for a response to my brilliant and witty argumentation. Before I start this post in earnest, I want to clear up some confusion relevant to this post. My nickname, "Cogito" has nothing whatsoever to do with the (in)famous declaration by Renee Descartes, cogito ergo sum. Cogito simply means "I Think" in Latin, and for many reasons the meaning of the word and its language apply particularly well to me.

That being said, I do want to discuss Descartes's declaration here. I should note that my knowledge of the statement and its context stems on one side from general philosophy discussions/classes and on the other side from discussion by Objectivists, not from reading Descartes's work myself. The literal English meaning of the term is "I think therefore I am." Most Objectivists who have spoken on this issue have taken this to mean "the act of thinking, of being conscious, causes my existence", i.e. that consciousness is more fundamental than existence. While this is a valid possible interpretation, from my overall understanding, and perhaps from my general optimism, I'd like to suggest another interpretation: "the fact that I am thinking, am conscious, is evidence that I exist." In other words, nothing which doesn't exist could be conscious, and therefore the fact of my consciousness implies my existence, which is a primacy-of-existence viewpoint.

I want to make it clear that I do not, in any way, support Descartes's rationalistic castle-making, nor do I think that those claiming that the primacy-of-consciousness interpretation is correct are wrong. I'm just offering an alternative, one which, if viewed in the right light, is very similar to the axiom of consciousness. That being said, Descartes as a whole has never particularly interested me, so this is probably the last you'll hear about him from me.