Descartes’ “I think, therefore I am” seems the most basic and clear of all statements- not reducible any further than it already is. But even this statement relies on three basic presuppositions (namely, the law of the excluded middle, the law of identity, and the law of non-contradiction).
If one of the greatest thinkers of all-time could produce such a clear statement, not realising that the argument he put forth rested on other assumptions, what excuse could we have for the decisions we make, the statements we utter, the ideas that we cling to going unscrutinised? If even Descartes’ “I think, therefore I am” can be put into question, then so it is for everything we know, or think we know. Assume nothing. Question everything. Anything less is an insult to our intelligence.
