How do I know I Exist?
- Thread starter Wintermute_
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I love it!Veloxe said:
I could quote Descartes here, but that would just be redundant at this point. And since you're trying to prove that you don't exist it would also be pointless
The trick I can see here is that by doing, well anything under your own ability, you're proving, at least to yourself, that you exist. So really the only thing to do is to try and convince everyone else that you don't exist.
It's called Solipsism and it's best thought of as an extension on Descartes philosophy. IF Descarte says "I think therefore I am" a solipsist would say "I think, therefore I am the only one I can be sure exists." Try and get the people you're talking to to take a solipsist approach.
You can prove that you don't know that you exist by saying you're always changing. Every time you look at yourself in the mirror, you are changing. Look now at your fingernails. Now look again: they are longer (even if you can't see that with your naked eye). And since you are (like the fingernails) not the same as you were even a second ago, how can you be sure that you even exist? Who are you anyways? I hope that helps 
My answer would be that I can't prove that I don't know I exist because I know I exist because the word exist is defined by me.
You have 5 senses that make you aware of your surroundings and you have free will therefore you can think yourself. I am well aware that your 5 senses could be boundaries to govern you existence but it makes more sense to believe in them then it does to not believe in them
Tell me though, if you believe that you don't exist then what does it matter? Why not dive under a train as you don't exist and since pain is not a limitation what is stopping you from achieving an existence you can except as existing? Unless you spend countless hours researching it in your spare time I think it's safe to say you subconsciously believe you exist and unless you are actively search for ways to break out of this existence then you also accept it.
It's a shit existence but it's the best we have until virtual reality gives us all power of the gods.
Tell me though, if you believe that you don't exist then what does it matter? Why not dive under a train as you don't exist and since pain is not a limitation what is stopping you from achieving an existence you can except as existing? Unless you spend countless hours researching it in your spare time I think it's safe to say you subconsciously believe you exist and unless you are actively search for ways to break out of this existence then you also accept it.
It's a shit existence but it's the best we have until virtual reality gives us all power of the gods.
I have always found this a more convincing argument for defining humanity rather than existence. I know that's not the intention, but just wondering if you exist doesn't seem to really prove that you do actually exist.SilentCom said:
That said, I'll vouch for your existence OP and you can vouch for mine.
If I think you not, are you?Blobpie said:
It's a stupid question, don't bother answering it. It's shallow and designed to be intentionally confusing.
That's brilliant! It's like that story where the philosophy professor wanted his class to prove his chair didn't exist! One student wrote, "What chair?"Veloxe said:
I did I.B. and finished it last year. I ended up with a B in TOK so I'm pretty happy about thatWintermute_ said:
I guess you can approach it by saying that you may not exist as a physical being but as a metaphysical or spiritual being.
Or something like that. I swore off TOK the second I finished my presentation.
But let's say you and I are both looking at something. It's an apple. It's red. But what is red? It's just the way your eyes send signals to your brain, right? Is my red the same as yours? The same as a colorblind person? If not, is it really the same apple? because yours is a different color than mine.. well a different red. You get the ideaThe Rockerfly said:
Also, don't get me and my deterministic mind started on free will
