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In its most elemental form, that of the logical proposition, Descartes's ergo posits a relationship of sufficient evidence. Cogito, ergo sum: I think, and the existence of my thought provides sufficient proof of the existence of my subjectivity. Ergo, or its translated therefore, does not, however, provide a clear path of cause and effect. Descartes does not, and cannot, say: Because I think, I am. Thinking is sufficient evidence of existence, but it cannot be its cause. Neither can he say: Because I am, I think. There are demonstrably beings who do not think, who are incapable of thought -- sponges, first-trimester embryos, most elected officials. Being is therefore necessary evidence of thinking -- one must exist to think -- but is not sufficient evidence -- one needn't think to exist. In print or "linear" narrative, nevertheless, ergo is typically assumed to be a trope of causality. In William H. Gass's succinct explanation, The king died, then the queen died is a chronology or chronicle; The king died, then the queen died of grief is a story, a narrative that takes its form and meaning from the implicit causal link, the silent ergo. But this stability is thrown into question in hypertext, and while such ambiguity is certainly something we all agree on in a casual way, I want to ask exactly why -- on the level of the syntax itself, rather than on the level of the technology. I want to consider ergo, and the problematics of causality and identity it suggests, as an originary metaphor for linking mechanisms between texts or verbal events. Ergo is embedded in an ensemble of assumptions and habitual uses which mask the reality that the logical syntax of if ... then is at base a mode of association rather than an assurance of causality. This is to say that ergo is a distinctly rhetorical device. On that basis, an investigation of linking might ask what we as writers and readers mean -- what kinds of relationships we intend to claim, suggest, privilege, and anticipate -- when we provide and use hypertextual links.
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