cogito

noun

1. (capitalized, sometimes, uncountable, usually)The argument "cogito, ergo sum" ("I think therefore I am") from the philosophy of René Descartes; the mental act of thinking this thought; a conscious being which performs this mental act.

   “The Cogito of Descartes and Husserl is an apprehension of fact. […] Such a Cogito is performed by a consciousness directed upon consciousness, a consciousness which takes consciousness as an object.”

   “But are there not as many consciousnesses or cogitos as there are individuals?”

   “An obvious candidate for this class of propositions would be the cogito, whose evidence, Descartes insisted, is not founded on inference.”

   “Benhabib proposes a […] "recognition that the subjects of reason are finite, embodied and fragile creatures, and not disembodied cogitos or abstract unities of transcendental apperception".”

   “It may be thought that this leads to an even more radical skepticism than that envisaged by Descartes, since now even the cogito may be questioned.”