Cogito Ergo Sum

Rene Descrates coined the phrase "Cogito Ergo Sum" - "I think therefore I am" - as a rebellious proclamation of what was real amid a world that might be false. In Descarte's world, everything perceivable or thinkable might be the result of the lies and the deceptions from the Evil Genius. All extended things -- things in physical reality -- and all things in the mind, such as ideas, can have their reality doubted. All that a person knows or has experienced might be an elaborate illusion. However, if all in the world can be doubted, the one truth is that there is the one who is doing the doubting. In other words,  the individual in his or her thoughts doing the doubting cannot itself be doubted. "I think therefore I am" is what is real.

Nietzsche suggested that "the senses lie," meaning that the reality that we know first must filter through our five senses. Our senses translate the "world outside," and the reality we know is the reality that has passed through our senses ... not the reality as it exists in-itself. All reality is interpreted reality. We know that the electromagnetic spectrum extends beyond the visible light spectrum, yet if all we knew came from our senses alone, then microwaves, x-rays, and gamma rays (also part of the electromagnetic spectrum) would not exist. Our senses are limitations placed upon what is knowable. The senses lie in that they limit the common person's perception of reality.

Is there such a thing as individuality?

The reactive response to this question will most likely be a resounding "yes!" However, pause for a moment to consider what it means to be an individual. First, an "individual's" conception is brought about by the act of two people. The "individual" then receives nourishment and protection from his or her mother. Next the individual is born into a social world filled with parents, grandparents, cousins, aunts, and uncles. There is a culture that the individual will inherit -- that of his or her parents, and this culture will have its totems and taboos -- socially acceptable and socially inappropriate methods to conduct personal behavior and negotiate and govern present and future social interactions.

The "individual" will then enter the education system of his or her host culture and will learn to read in the language of the dominant culture. Ideas will be passed along to this individual -- ideas that the individual did not invent. Clothing, music, art, and poetry all serve as "personal" avenues of expression -- but the individual did not invent any of these avenues ... other people did. Despite this, the individual will find their personal expression through the artistic devices belonging to other people. The individual will achieve intellectual freedom on the shoulders of those who pioneered the articulation of thought.

Everything the "individual" has was made available by other people.

"There is nothing new under the sun." Ecclesiastes 1:9

Notions of love, freedom, and choice ... views on how one ought to live and how one ought to die, ... all that we know of the world ... our "personal" ideas bear the mark of the larger social context from which they came. There seems to be no such thing as a social-less individual.

While individuals have the potential to contribute back to the social framework, ... for the most part, I see individuals who have nothing more than a parasitic relationship with their social framework. Nietzsche called this the "herd." Heidegger called this the "they." Live is lived, proximally and for the most part, in inauthenticity.

"Tell me what to think about my love life, self-help book."
"Teach me about God, religion."
"Help me with my depression, therapist."
"Cure my loneliness, random person that'll sleep with."
"Give my life meaning, world."