Think Accurately

For ages, many philosophers had been preoccupied with the idea of proving something to be true. It seemed, however, that as soon as one of them stated something, others would find reasons to doubt it. Eventually, some people believed that no one could prove the existence of anything.

This reasoning misled some people to believe that they could and should do anything they wanted to do. They falsely reasoned that because nothing could be proven to exist, then neither could any morals be proven to be true.

It wasn't until 1637 that Rene Descartes philosophically proved, at least to himself, that he himself did undoubtedly exist. His proof is contained in the following famous words: "I think, therefore I am." What he actually did was give proof of his existence as a thinking being.

Clearly, it is our thinking that makes us more or less humane. It can also be argued that how we think determines our existence, or at least, what kind of existence. The following famous quotations seems to me to suggest this:

• "As a man thinketh ... so is he." --Proverbs 23:7
• "A man is what he thinks all day long." --Ralph Waldo Emerson
• A thought produces an act. An act produces a habit. A habit produces a character. And, a character produces a destiny. --author unknown (slightly modified by Perman Wilson)
• "What we think we become." --Siddhartha Gautama
• "Know thyself." --The Oracle of Delphi
• "To thine own self be true." --Polonious (one of Shakespeare's characters)
• To be true to yourself, you must know yourself, and you must think accurately. --Perman Wilson