I mean, how do we know that we are? I am not satisfied with the answer "because whe can think we are". Would there be any difference if we "were not"?
2006-07-10 18:41:29 · 24 answers · asked by jerry_the_raven 1 in Arts & Humanities ➔ Philosophy
you know sometimes i ask the same question, but i realized that i shouldn't mess with my head so much. :)
2006-07-11 02:01:51 · answer #1 · answered by Inquirer 5 · 4⤊ 1⤋
I don't think we can be sure. Our brains perceive everything it sees, hears, feels, tastes, smells, even what it imagines. So our physical body could just be an illusion itself.
I think if there was any proof, it would be through deductive logic. In that case we could assume we are real because our brain does perceive.
For all we know, we could just be parasites inside another being, or just illusions from the thoughts of a being, perhaps created for it's entertainment.
I think the quote "I think, therefore I am" really is the best answer. So if the brain perceives illusions, then the brain must exist, right?
2006-07-10 18:51:26 · answer #2 · answered by jeffrey_meyer2000 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Doubt>Thinking>Mind>Yourself.
2006-07-10 18:53:01 · answer #3 · answered by Ahmed Agour 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The most sincere response I had when asking the same question to my students was when a young man said "I'll punch you in the face and show you." Not quite as poetic as Descartes, but reflects a far too common mindset.
2006-07-10 18:45:45 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
you are just the figment in the imagination of a being from another world in an alternate planet, a virus, you do not exist and 100 years from now,in that alien dreamworld you think you exist in there will be no evidence that you ever existed at all
2006-07-10 19:02:57 · answer #5 · answered by jezebel 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
If we can move any object within the universe and we see and feel the object move we are "real" so therefore we exist. You can have an out of body experience and it may feel real but it doesn't mean that it's real. When we are in our bodies we feel the real and it means it's real. I believe in God, I know he's real even though I don't feel him though. It gets contradictory I know but it's based on faith that you, God, and everything around you exist.
2006-07-10 18:50:24 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
something exist...perhaps some force that just generates everything the mind percieves...i've considered this before, i ask myself has someone actually asked this question or is it just a creation of the mind (i view it as if i dont truly exist and my thinking is just the result of some force then i believe it is the only thing...everything else is its creation)...ask yourself the same...did i really give you an answer or is it you created the answer along with me.
2006-07-10 18:59:28 · answer #7 · answered by kaos 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It is because the human spirit knows, deep down, that all lives intersect. That death doesn't just take someone, it misses someone else, and in the small distance between being taken and being missed, lives are changed.
2006-07-10 20:29:40 · answer #8 · answered by Princess illusion 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
A skeptic would probably say no.
A rationalist might say because we can think. An empiricist might say because we have sense perception.
You could study the above and pick one, or abstain if you think there are not any convincing arguments.
2006-07-10 19:28:43 · answer #9 · answered by curious 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Physical body + the capacity to think, feel, taste, see & hear are more than enough proof that we exist at the moment.
2006-07-10 19:50:24 · answer #10 · answered by Tsokomonster 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
1. Poke yourself
2. Slap yourself
3. Pinch yourself
If you survived all those steps then you exist.
2006-07-10 18:46:45 · answer #11 · answered by joangela1210 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋