Ego#
Summary#
Nietzsche challenges the ego as a philosophical given, arguing that the assertion “I think” presupposes the existence of an “I” as cause of thought without justification. The ego is not an “immediate certainty” but rather a grammatical habit and supposition—we infer an agent behind thinking because our language requires a subject for every verb. Nietzsche suggests that more rigorous thinkers may eventually learn to do without this “famous old ego” altogether.