The ‘cogito’, as you put it, exists in the sense that dynamic processes certainly have effect on the world, and those processes also tend to generate a sense of identity.
Just because it exists and has effect, though, is no reason to take its suggestions about the nature of that identity seriously.
Example: you probably tend to feel that you make choices from somewhere inside your head, as a response to your environment, rather than that your environment comes together in such a way that you react predictably to it, and coincidentally generate a sense of ‘choice’ as part of that feeling. Most people do this; it causes them to tend to attempt to apply willpower directly to “forcing” themselves to make the “choices” they think will produce the correct outcome, rather than crafting their environment so that they naturally react in such a way to produce that outcome, and coincidentally generate a sense that they “chose” to produce that outcome.
The ‘cogito’, as you put it, exists in the sense that dynamic processes certainly have effect on the world, and those processes also tend to generate a sense of identity.
Just because it exists and has effect, though, is no reason to take its suggestions about the nature of that identity seriously.
Example: you probably tend to feel that you make choices from somewhere inside your head, as a response to your environment, rather than that your environment comes together in such a way that you react predictably to it, and coincidentally generate a sense of ‘choice’ as part of that feeling. Most people do this; it causes them to tend to attempt to apply willpower directly to “forcing” themselves to make the “choices” they think will produce the correct outcome, rather than crafting their environment so that they naturally react in such a way to produce that outcome, and coincidentally generate a sense that they “chose” to produce that outcome.
Wu wei wu, and all that.