Cogito,Ego Sum

Background

Cogito, ergo sum (Je pense, donc je suis); "I think, therefore I am" is a Philosophical Proposition by René Descartes. The Simple Meaning of the Latin Phrase "Cogito, ergo sum"! So that Thinking about one’s Existence Proves "I Think" so that "I Exist". Say in Other Words Meaning that I Think, Therefore I Am ! This Topic became a Fundamental Element of Western Philosophy, it was Recognized as a Foundation for all Knowledge. While other knowledge could be a imagination, deception or mistake, this act of Doubting one's own existence can serve as proof of the reality of one's own existence, or at least of one's thought. Descartes' original phrase "Je pense, donc je suis" (French), appeared in his discourse on the method (1637), which was written in French rather than Latin phrase "Cogito ergo sum" to reach a Wider Audience in his country. Descartes used the Latin "Cogito ergo sum" in the later principles of philosophy (1644).The argument had popularly discussed in the English as "I Think, Therefore I Am" translated from "Cogito, ergo sum", or more Briefly, as "the Cogito".

Introduction

In his work, he goes about destroying the assumptions that most people had in philosophy before him. Many people would say, “ah well I see the sun, or I feel the grass, so therefore it exists”. Descartes basically said, “ok, but what if your brain is in a jar, and you are just dreaming all of this?”

In fact, his method of questioning is named after him – Cartesian Skepticism. Rene Descartes compared all his assumptions and facts to apples, comparing assumptions to bad apples, and facts to good apples. However, he worried that one assumption (or bad apple) could spoil the entire cart of apples if we couldn’t tell the difference between an assumption and the truth. So, he decided to throw all of the apples (or assumptions) out of the cart and question every single one of them, just like an apple picker would - one-by-one. This led him to question his own existence.

Philosophy is based on axioms. An axiom or postulate is a statement that is taken to be true, to serve as a premise or starting point for further reasoning and arguments. The word comes from the Greek axíōma ‘that which is thought worthy or fit’ or ‘that which commends itself as evident.’

Descartes basically argued that all of the axioms that had previously been used were wrong because they were not self-evident. In the same sense that you don’t know you are in a dream when you are dreaming, how do you know that anything around you is as it truly is?

So he started his philosophy by doubting everything.

At first, he couldn’t figure out where to go from there. How are you supposed to know anything if you doubt everything?

Eventually, he discovers his first axiom: I think therefore I am. In order for him to doubt everything, he must exist. He can’t assume anything about who or what he really is but he can safely assume that he exists, otherwise, he would not be thinking about the fact that he exists. So this is  pretty much the first building block of philosophy.

Applying “Cogito, Ergo Sum” in business

Rene Descartes was able to confirm his existence by realizing that only a human can think - and the very fact that he is thinking about whether he is real or not makes him a human.

While Cartesian skepticism can be extremely complex for modern entrepreneurs, a successful CEO should apply a healthy dose of skepticism when it comes to strategic decisions. This can be accomplished by following Descartes’ apple cart approach - evaluating all of our assumptions one-by-one, and ensuring that we are not making mistakes in the process. CEOs - and most leaders, really - make the mistake of confirmation bias or wishful thinking when considering options, and oftentimes make misguided assumptions just to win their argument. We see it all the time with investor presentations, company projections and other forward-looking statements. In fact, the safe harbour statement on forward-looking projections is a testament to how confident these companies are in making these statements. We see this kind of behaviour with stockbrokers, CFOs, and other leading analysts as well. 

One of the best ways to create the discipline needed here is to follow the strategy that the US Military employs in their war games. Our military uses independent contractors to build a “red team” to fight against the US team (the blue team) , Mateski, Mark (June 2009).

A red team is an independent group that challenges an organization to improve its effectiveness by assuming an adversarial role or point of view. It is particularly effective in organizations with strong cultures and fixed ways of approaching problems.  Ragan, Steve (2012).

This approach is particularly effective in organizations with strong cultures and fixed ways of approaching problems. The United States intelligence community (military and civilian) has red teams that explore alternative futures and write articles as if they were foreign world leaders. Little formal doctrine or publications about Red Teaming in the military exist.

If companies were to employ talented outside consultants to play the role of the red team, shooting down assumptions and adding healthy skepticism to their projections, we would be able to avoid serious mistakes and blunders, especially ones that spring out of our own overconfidence and bloated ego.

Conclusion

In summary, here is a quick outline for implementing a healthy climate of skepticism and critical thinking within an organization or department:

1. Implement a culture of rational thinking - No decision should be made impulsively, no matter how smart the CEO is or how successful he or she has been thus far in leading the company. An executive should always be able to defend his strategy to his leadership team, backed up by verifiable facts and reliable projections.

2. The executive proposal then needs to be broken down into concrete decisions and action items that need to be undertaken to complete the implementation - These need to be documented in a traceable decision tree structure, where each decision is posted with the underlying details of the risk assessment analysis.

3. Implement a “Red Team” for critical decisions - This red team should be sourced from external parties with the sole purpose of identifying flaws in strategic thinking and underlying assumptions. The red team should be allowed to review the decision tree and attack the underlying decisions as well.

4. The red team presents their findings of vulnerabilities to the management team, and the management team can decide to refine the plan and models and resubmit this for the red team’s next attack.

5. The company can set a maximum number of iterations so that this project can be completed in a resource-efficient fashion.

6. The executive and the red team should both be allowed to explain their findings to the leadership team, and the decision is then put to a vote.