Criticisms Of The Cogito

What’s wrong with the cogito?
1) Is there a questionable hidden premise?
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Most criticism is of the cogito in its earlier format:
“I think therefore I am”, in the Discourse on
Method.

1) The hidden premise:
(First raised by Lichtenberg)
I think
Thinking things exist
Therefore I am
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What’s wrong with the cogito?
1) Is there a questionable hidden premise?

The hidden premise:

I think
Thinking things exist
Therefore I exist

This premise is questionable -Does the existence of thoughts necessarily imply a thinker? David Hume argued that we have no right to assume this, as does the anatta
(no-self) doctrine of Buddhism. Perhaps Descartes should have said, “There is thinking going on; therefore there are thoughts.” The cogito therefore doesn’t actually establish the existence of a self.
“I” is merely a linguistic convenience. It doesn’t actually refer to anything, any more than the “It” in “It is raining.”
Descartes strays from his rationalistic agenda here since
“thinking things exist” is an a posteriori, empirical observation. 2

What’s wrong with the cogito?
1) Is there a questionable hidden premise?
The hidden premise: counter arguments

I think
Thinking things exist
Therefore I exist
Ownerless, thinkerless thoughts – pretty weird!
The suppressed premise argument assumes that Descartes intended the cogito as a piece of syllogistic (deductive) logic. However,
Descartes did not intend the cogito to operate this way. The
Meditations should be seen as a course in guided self-discovery and the cogito as a self-authenticating proposition. According to Cottingham, Descartes expressly made this point to Leibniz at the time.
Descartes restates the cogito in the Meditations as “I exist is necessarily true.” to clarify this and overcome the criticism
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What’s wrong with the cogito?
2) The cogito is circular.

I think
Therefore I am
According to
Bertrand
Russell the cogito is circular since it assumes what it is setting out to prove.
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What’s wrong with the cogito?
2)