How do I know I Exist?

[Wintermute_]

Ask yourself this question, and then answer.

I have to deliver a presentation that has me "prove that I DON'T know I exist" and can simply not figure out how to go about doing this. Its pretty damn hard to prove you don't know something like that!
Wonder if anyone here knows about TOK...

 

[King Toasty]

You think, therefor you are. Most fitting for this: If you didn't exist, how could you pose that question?

 

[Veloxe]

Clearly the only option is to not show up for the presentation, since you don't exist to give it, seems reasonable to me!

 

[gostlyfantom]

I make the assumption that i exist... and i am correct

 

[Eldarion]

Do you exist? If your answer was yes, just go with that.

 

[SeaCalMaster]

I'm sorry if this is insulting your intelligence, but you have heard of Rene Descartes, right?

 

[DasDestroyer]

Well, there's always the Matrix idea - if all of the senses are merely electrical signals sent to the brain, then they can be faked with the right kind of machinery, and we would have absolutely no way of knowing it. And if someone were to simulate a brain on a computer, and send the according signals to it, theoretically it would feel as though it does exist, although it is no more than code.

You can also say that when people dream, everything seems perfectly natural to them, it is only when they wake up that they realize that a lot of what happened is impossible, so who's to say we aren't part of someone's dream?

Hope this helps

 

[burningdragoon]

hire a judge, grab a bible, be sworn in on said bible, say "I don't know I exist", done. Cuz... no one lies under oath or anything like that...

 

[SilentCom]

Cogito Ergo Sum - I think therefore I am
Dubito Ergo Sum- I doubt therefore I am

-Rene Descartes, Discourse on Method

 

[King Toasty]

I'm sorry if this is insulting your intelligence, but you have heard of Rene Descartes, right?

He'd better have, though I doubt it. Probably heard, "I think therefor I am" though, everybody has. He just doesn't get what it means.

They should teach Philosophy better is schools, so we don't have people asking this stuff. D:<

Captcha: offeader elighten. Deeeeeeep.

 

[Szayel Aporro Granz]

We don't simple as that this is all one big ass dream and no I'm not making an inception cloned idea I never saw that movie cause its a socialist movie!!! lol

 

[Kanatatsu]

people are going to keep quoting descartes at you, and they probably don't know why or how the "cogito ergo sum" proof works, but you may rest assured that it does.

 

[Freechoice]

Just show the Matrix.

Or Ghost in the Shell.

Go for GitS. It has tits. And brainy bits.

And headshots.

My god, are there headshots...

 

[Wintermute_]

I'm sorry if this is insulting your intelligence, but you have heard of Rene Descartes, right?

Yeah, great stuff, and that is the problem. Thats a solid idea Descartes had! and I have to PROVE that I DON'T know I exist for the presentation. How the fuck?

 

[Phlakes]

Well, it's easy to show how you don't know other people exist. All of you could be in my imagination and there's no way I can prove otherwise. I know that I exist because I can think, but I can't ever know that anyone else can.

I guess you could turn that on itself. Say that you don't know that your thoughts and awareness aren't in someone else's imagination, something like that.

 

[Bara_no_Hime]

I believe the theory goes:

If God, the gods, or reality is benevolent, then he/they/it would not attempt to fool an individual. If that is true, and if I am capable of thought, then the fact that I am aware of myself means that I exist as I perceive myself to exist, or in a manner that is approximate to how I perceive myself.

However, if God, the gods, or the universe is cruel, then my thoughts might be a lie - a dream or a story or a cruel joke. In that case, I might not exist, or if I exist, I may not exist as I believe I exist - my reality might be a dream created for me or created by my own mind.

Since I only have my own sense to tell me, and senses lie (or can be fooled) I have no proof that I exist.

It's been a while since I had this class - but this is pretty much what I remember.

 

[KalosCast]

You should probably get your money back on whatever philosophy course you're taking.

 

[Anarchemitis]

Clearly the only option is to not show up for the presentation, since you don't exist to give it, seems reasonable to me!

Yay loopholes!

 

[zehydra]

"prove that I DON'T know I exist"

lol you can't PROVE that. You could argue for it, but you can't prove it.

 

[Vern5]

I assume I exist and, since I'm still here, I guess I'm right. Of course, the theory of "I think therefore I am" is as hard to prove as it is to disprove. For example, I am thinking that I exist. Well how does that prove that my thinking prolongs my existence? I'm guessing it proves it the same way that telling myself I don't exist doesn't blink me out of the universe.

Welcome to the world of philosophical arguments! We go on forever!