Culture and Creativity: 20 February 2023 at the University of Canberra




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Jan Lauwereyns 

The Doubt Function

“I think therefore I am” (Cogito ergo sum). Everyone knows these words by Descartes. His Discourse on the Method of Rightly Conducting One's Reason and of Seeking Truth in the Sciences was based on exploring his personal experience with the faculty of doubt. Doubt drove the chaotic itinerancy of consciousness. We can rephrase it as “I doubt therefore I think therefore I am” (Dubito ergo cogito ergo sum). But is this a method, or a way of being? And what choice do we have in the matter? Perhaps it is a Deadly Serious Party sure to give us a hangover. Luckily, we have 一期一会, ichi-go ichi-e, the once-in-a-lifetime encounter, and “Dunno” in Japanese sounds like Poetic Rebellion or Death Orchid – an unexpected gift, a thing of beauty, that is, a joy forever. So, let’s explore that doubt function.