On November 12, a new song by Billy Eilish “Therefore I am” was released, there is a quote from Descartes “Therefore I exist.” It is clear that an educated reader immediately associates with the famous quote “I think, therefore I am.” Here is a track released by an American Irish woman.
This is the singer’s fourth single from the album “When we go to bed, where do we find ourselves.” The producer was again Billy’s brother Finneas, but the video was produced entirely by a young singer. It turned out quite unusual and with a meaning, which we now, in fact, will analyze.
The meaning of the song
The educated listener immediately saw through the quote behind the repeated chorus: “Cogito, ergo sum.” We think, and therefore we exist. Rene Descartes also gave the artist food for thought, and she laid out her thoughts with the next track, which quickly won all the charts and, of course, a separate place in the hearts of fans and female fans.
So, in order to understand the meaning of the track, we must first understand the meaning of the quote? Or maybe we should also study the whole French philosophy? No, we won’t go that deep. “I am a thought, and therefore I exist” means only that if you still manage to read this line after another, then your soul is still here, and you definitely live. But Billy had something else in mind.
“You think that you’re the man, I think therefore I am” – you think that you are the one, I think, because I can’t do it differently – this is how you can translate these lines. Here Billy informs that she is not some kind of thing that must belong to a man who has decided so, she has her own feelings and aspirations.
Eilish herself has self-awareness, can think and make decisions, she has formed a personal understanding of what to do right and what is wrong. “A person who just appeared out of nowhere should not change your mind” – this is the message the singer conveys to listeners and listeners.
One could say that they departed from the original quote as much as possible, but still this reference turned out to be excellent – it also expresses Billy’s bewilderment that someone appropriated it (“Enough, stop, what are you talking about?” “I myself I can think, make decisions”), but this can be interpreted in another way: “You thought to yourself that I belong to you, but I don’t think about anything – all the necessary thoughts come to me on their own.”
Billy also makes references to Plato’s “theory of forms”, but this is a less prominent reference. Here it is worth paying attention to the line: “You think that you are the king of the world and he is perfect, but this world is fictional.” We all perceive reality in different ways and our “fictitious” worlds are only a product of the perception of reality from a certain angle, light is refracted according to the same principle.
In conclusion
Billie Eilish is challenging idealists who think they can tell others how they should act and how they should feel. This is a social challenge with philosophical overtones, and the clip itself turned out to be more or less peaceful – just Billy running around the mall.
Users comment on the clip itself: “It’s my dream from childhood – a whole mall just for me!” – “This is my childhood dream – the whole shopping center is for me alone!” What Billy wanted to say by this is not very clear.
Maybe the meaning of the clip is that the whole world is for us, and we can take whatever we want, or she just wanted to run around the supermarket. For this, they love the singer – she does not “star” and remains the same as she was loved at the age of 13.
