Key Arguments

• Ricoeur states that “The cogito is without any genuine philosophical signification unless its positing is invested with the ambition of establishing a final, ultimate foundation,” explicitly tying its meaning to a foundationalist project.
• He claims this ambition is “responsible for the great oscillation that causes the "I" of the "I think" to appear, by turns, to be elevated inordi- nately to the heights of a first truth and then cast down to the depths of a vast illusion,” describing a dialectic of inflation and debasement of the subject in modern philosophy.
• He notes that this foundational ambition becomes progressively radicalized “from Descartes to Kant, then from Kant to Fichte, and finally to the Husserl of the Cartesian Meditations,” situating the crisis of the cogito within the very history of transcendental philosophy.
• Nonetheless, he argues that it is sufficient “to focus on its birthplace, in Descartes him self, whose philosophy confirms that the crisis of the cogito is contempo raneous with the positing of the cogito,” implying that the instability is internal to the original Cartesian project, not just a later development.

Source Quotes

1. The Cogito Is Posited The cogito is without any genuine philosophical signification unless its positing is invested with the ambition of establishing a final, ultimate foundation. This ambition is responsible for the great oscillation that causes the "I" of the "I think" to appear, by turns, to be elevated inordi- nately to the heights of a first truth and then cast down to the depths of a vast illusion.

The Cogito Is Posited The cogito is without any genuine philosophical signification unless its positing is invested with the ambition of establishing a final, ultimate foundation. This ambition is responsible for the great oscillation that causes the "I" of the "I think" to appear, by turns, to be elevated inordi- nately to the heights of a first truth and then cast down to the depths of a vast illusion. If this ambition of establishing an ultimate foundation has seen itself radicalized from Descartes to Kant, then from Kant to Fichte, and finally to the Husserl of the Cartesian Meditations, it nevertheless seems to me that it is enough to focus on its birthplace, in Descartes him self, whose philosophy confirms that the crisis of the cogito is contempo raneous with the positing of the cogito.3 The foundational ambition belonging to the Cartesian cogito can be recognized from the outset in the hyperbolic character of the doubt that opens the area of investigation in the Meditations.

This ambition is responsible for the great oscillation that causes the "I" of the "I think" to appear, by turns, to be elevated inordi- nately to the heights of a first truth and then cast down to the depths of a vast illusion. If this ambition of establishing an ultimate foundation has seen itself radicalized from Descartes to Kant, then from Kant to Fichte, and finally to the Husserl of the Cartesian Meditations, it nevertheless seems to me that it is enough to focus on its birthplace, in Descartes him self, whose philosophy confirms that the crisis of the cogito is contempo raneous with the positing of the cogito.3 The foundational ambition belonging to the Cartesian cogito can be recognized from the outset in the hyperbolic character of the doubt that opens the area of investigation in the Meditations. The radical nature of the project4 is thus of the same scope as the doubt, which includes within the domain of "opinion" common sense, the sciences—mathematical and physical—and even the philosophical tradition.

Key Concepts

• The cogito is without any genuine philosophical signification unless its positing is invested with the ambition of establishing a final, ultimate foundation.
• This ambition is responsible for the great oscillation that causes the "I" of the "I think" to appear, by turns, to be elevated inordi- nately to the heights of a first truth and then cast down to the depths of a vast illusion.
• it nevertheless seems to me that it is enough to focus on its birthplace, in Descartes him self, whose philosophy confirms that the crisis of the cogito is contempo raneous with the positing of the cogito.
• the crisis of the cogito is contempo raneous with the positing of the cogito.

Context

Opening of section 1, “The Cogito Is Posited,” where Ricoeur frames the entire discussion of the cogito in terms of its foundational ambition and the resulting historical oscillation in its status.