I think Hummus is delicious

An interesting rebuttal my friend, I am sure. Or at least I think I'm sure. I'm not sure. You say that you can disprove that I think hummus is delicious by proving that it is not delicious. This simply isn't true. You may indeed prove that it is not objectively delicious, but I can still be deceived into think that it is. Therefore, your second argument is void, but it very neatly brings us to your main argument, which is much more potent. My ability to think is in much greater question. You say that hummus may not be delicious. How can we know this? Well, by two ways. Primarily, we gain this knowledge through our senses. When I eat hummus, I taste the delicious chick peas and spices. I feel the smooth yet varied texture. I smell the potent tang of garlic. However, knowledge gathered by the senses can be called into doubt. Often do our senses deceive us. Place a straight stick in water, and it appears to our vision that the stick becomes bent, yet it has not. Ask yourself, how many times have you thought you heard, smelled, or seen something that you did not? Thus, senses alone cannot be accepted as a viable means for either proving or disproving the deliciousness of hummus. Fortunate then that the primary focus of this debate has the word "think" in it, as this is a debate which must exist primarily in the mind. **************************** Descartes proved his own existence through the process of being "a thinking thing" by means of the logical paradox that it is impossible to think that you are thinking, but not actually be thinking. Perhaps more aptly he ought to have said "I think I think, therefore I think I am." Can we be totally sure that we are a thinking thing? As I sit here my heart beats, my lungs fill with air and then expel it, my body temperature regulates itself, my eyes blink, and yet I do not think about any of these things for them to happen. It is rote process, instinct, habit, and chemical process which keeps me alive. Therefore, and speaking directly to your point that I lack the capacity to think, how do I know that I think hummus is delicious? Is it not entirely feasible that I am merely a FUNCTIONING thing rather than a thinking thing, and that the delicious qualities of hummus are a residual effect of an essential hummus-ness? This actually raises the nebulous question of what actually is thought? You are thinking about reading this, forming opinions in your head (like what the f*** is this guy talking about), and probably frowning. How much of what you're actually doing is a conscious thought out process though? Most functioning in life is merely a programmed action in response to previously observed sensory phenomena. Your opinions, likes and dislikes, all follow suit from what you've experienced giving pleasure or pain in the past, and your actions follow automatically. However, I am not saying that independent thought can not or does not exist. It is simply a question of to what degree. Perhaps I will allow this particular train of thought where it is for right now, in deference to allow my colleague to pick it up at his leisure. Or not. ******************************** More precisely to the point, the conceptual notion of "hummus being delicious" has passed through my brain. I could not have written it to begin with if the idea had never existed within me. I need not even enjoy the taste of hummus (although I believe I do) for the statement that "I think hummus is delicious" to be true by cognitive necessity. This is of course assuming that I actually do think, which is still in some doubt, or if you can make a case that the thoughts in my head are not actually my own. Good luck mon ami.