Maybe we are all part of someone's dream and when he or she wakes up we will all disappear...
How can you be 100% sure that this is not the case? Have you ever had a dream and everything felt so real?
2006-06-11 15:12:05 · 11 answers · asked by Amie 2 in Arts & Humanities ➔ Philosophy
The philosopher Descartes made this statement and you will hear it often cited, "I think therefore I am (Cogito ergo cogito sum)". I say, "Cogito cogito ergo cogito sum" - (I THINK I think therefore I THINK I am.) Have you ever read Thornton Wilder's "Our Town"? The female lead Emily Webb says something like "my address is Emily Webb, "Such-and Such Street", Grover's Corner, Vermont, United States of America, continent of North America, Planet Earth, Solar System, Universe, Mind of God." We cannot be sure we are not just figments of God's imaginiation. That's why it is pure arrogance to say that we KNOW there is no God.
2006-06-11 15:27:40 · answer #1 · answered by ckswife 6 · 3⤊ 0⤋
Are you really sure that this is the question you want to ask? Consider your answers. If somehow you found out the answer to your question was yes, we all really are just a part of someone's dream, what would you do about it? Would you change the way you live your life, knowing that despite your revelation, the laws that have applied for centuries would still apply, that you would still be held responsible for your actions? And when it comes to your question on if we'll disappear when this person wakes up, I'll say only this, no one can tell you what's going to happen tomorrow, take advantage of today.
2006-06-11 15:30:48 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Poetically, we cannot answer a question. The problem with this question is, you accept dream can exist but no reality cannot. If dream can exist, everything else also can exist. Real, un-real, non-real, dream, dreamlessness, hallucination, consciousness, sub-consciousness, unconscisousness all are mental existence. Like wise, "real" is also a mental existence related to some condition.(but, to what extend you are real is the right question)
My answer to this question is
As a gross body with its characteristics of pain, pleasure and becoming you exist.
As a gross consciousness with its characteristics of pain and pleasure and becoming you exist.
A combination and culmination of both with its characteristics of pain and pleasure and becoming you exist.
Dream exists, hallucination exists and dreamlessness exists and conscious state exists. But, as such there is nothing permanently exists. But, exists relatively. When any of those relativity is missing, your existence become in question and when that relativity totally dissipates, you don;t exist as you exist now. But may exist in another form. But, then whether to call as you or something else is further to be debated. A candle melted can be called "melted candle" or with a totally different name as "wax" also. A rock granule can be called broken rock or granueled rock or sand.....
2006-06-11 20:22:16 · answer #3 · answered by r_govardhanam 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
ok consider this simple thought experiment. if you are but a figment of someone's imagination then all your actions are dependent on that being's emotions and imagination.how many times this week did you feel you freely excercise your freedom to choose? are you obese? do you think that it is hopeless to fight the pounds coz thats what the dreamer thinks youre cracked up to be? do you really think that you are not the master of your destiny? is your life so mechanical that you cannot even decide to eat or not to eat an apple? if so, perhaps you are in somebody's dream.
2006-06-11 18:50:19 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
It's not a matter of being sure that you exist, it's a matter of your level of lucidity.
For example, if you're in a dream, but don't know you're dreaming, and you awake, you think that dream wasn't real.
However, there is a thing called lucid dreaming, where one can know he or she is dreaming, and KNOW before they wake up, that it was or wasn't 'real', depending on your definition.
So likewise, just as the lucid dreamer can see past his or her 'deception', 'illusion', or 'unassurance', so we can see past this 'dream' and see that it is real, and thus not be deceived when we 'wake up'. And so we really can be sure, but depending on our level of lucidity.
2006-06-11 17:21:15 · answer #5 · answered by Source 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You cant be sure if we really exist or not, but our mind makes it real.
2006-06-11 16:12:54 · answer #6 · answered by lalahappybunny 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
you dream in black in white but you exist in a world of color
2006-06-12 20:16:18 · answer #7 · answered by bamm m 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Very simple! Poke yourself with a needle.
2006-06-11 17:09:57 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
well not reallly but i am pretty sure that we all exist.
2006-06-12 08:51:26 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
its amazing that u r not sure?
2006-06-11 20:11:49 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋