How can I prove that I exist?

Question

How can I prove that I (or anything for that matter) exists? All I have to test it with are my five senses and my memory of what my senses have told me. Can these really be considered reliable?

Answer 1

Ask Descartes.

Answer 2

I know some people are going to read this and be like "you're posting the question, of course you exist", but I see what you're getting at. Good philosophy question. We debated this subject in my philosophy class. It's true. The only thing you have to go on is memory (which we all know fails a lot of people) and your senses (which some people dont have all of either) so, how do we PROVE something exists. I believe we all create our own reality, through conscious and subconscious thinking. I'm sure you've heard "I think therefore I am", and I believe that's really the only way to say that something exists is to think it does. If I think the sky is purple, who's going to prove me wrong? and how? You're only using what YOUR conscious mind is telling you, and the person who labeled the sky "blue" was only using what HE thought and HIS senses right? So, how does that make it fact? It doesn't. GREAT QUESTION!

Answer 3

I try to evaluate existence claims by asking how complicated the universe would have to be with and without the object claimed to exist, taking observations into account.

For example, a universe in which we're all living batteries for a giant computer would require an entirely new formulation of thermodynamics incompatible with what we observe, just for the powering of the computer, and it would require some mad crazy algorithms for generating the world so well using only a finite amount of stored data bits. Plus, that world would bear a suspicious resemblance to Hollywood. So, I reject the idea of a Matrix, because it's not likely at all.

Given the claim that I exist, I accept the claim because a universe in which I don't exist would require a whole bunch of special setup just to fool me into thinking I exist. Not likely.

Given the claim that a god exists, I reject the claim because you need a whole host of violations of natural law and a whole bunch of special pleading, and then you have to deal with that god's ethical problems and her childish temper and her curious resemblance to the prescientific ages' equivalent to Hollywood, the "Pagan Explanation for Things We Can't Understand Scientifically, Like Fire and Lightning." That a god could exist (and hide it so well) is unlikely, and that this particular unlikely being exists and conforms to mythical prescientific ideas (a god, as opposed to a mystical teacup floating around in space) is astronomically unlikely.

Answer 4

I found an interesting answer for you...

Existence is confirmed when someone/something provides
you with information/input that one would not have
originated with themselves. Ever check that in dreams?
If you want to break a dream you can't get out of, open
a book, try to read it. All the pages will be blank.
It's kind of fun, especially when all the other characters
insist it's real. Ask them to read from it, it pisses
them off. (okay, so my dreams are kind of interactive
in a weird way.) You just can't quote text in your sleep,
no way. (music on the other hand is a completely different
matter)

That's how to tell whether or not you're the only real being
present. No information, knowledge, or understanding is
available except that which you bring with you. Hence,
finding something new and outside of yourself is proof that
more than yourself exists.

Answer 5

I suggest you eat a lot of re-fried beans, cabbage, and drink lots of cheap beer. Then go into a crowded elevator after you have awoken from the stupor and let your gases rip. If everyone looks around suspiciously while holding their noses, and you feel like puking as well, I think that you will have proven a point. In fact, a few points. First, foods and drink exist and when taken in the wrong portions cause disruptive behavior. Second, people don't like being stuck on a stinky elevator. And third, that it was not too bright following some idiots suggestion on yahoo answers. Rock on.

Answer 6

Oh burdened student of life's eternal questions.

How fortunate are we yahoo answerers to have such an opportunity to prescribe our wisdom onto you. If professors are not enough!

Who do wish to prove that you exist to? To yourself?

Think of a toothache! A terriblbly infected wisdom too ache. It should jolt you back to reality quickly, and invoke your memory bank, to appreciate a painless existence. To be free from such burdensome thoughts.

True, it would be employing your senses and memory.

Perhaps you could ask. " how do you prove the non living have senses and memory"?

Answer 7

You can't ask the question "How can I prove that I exist?" without first affirming the very thing you are questioning. Someone once asked his philosophy teacher, "how do I know I exist?" to which the teacher responded, "whom shall I say is asking?!" Get the point? You assume that you can or cannot do something in your statement, and you assume it will be answered. The very basic assumption of your existence is made in your own question! It has to be; otherwise it would not be coherent thought. :)

Answer 8

You can only prove it to yourself, not to anyone else. Then again, you can't prove that anything outside of your consciousness exists to yourself. It's a matter of accepting a reality and going with it. Your consciousness could be being affected by outside forces giving you a reality chosen by those forces, but this would be indistinguishable from "reality" as your perceptions are being controlled.

Answer 9

What does your sixth sense tell you? The truth is, this physical dimension is simply a grand illusion that we choose to experience for the evolution of our souls. When we "die" or leave this physical plane, we return to our true lives in the spiritual dimension where our souls truly reside. Then we will remember the truth. This applies to everyone, not just a select few.

Answer 10

You can't really prove anything with 100% certainty. A proof therefore is really just a degree of certainty. You certainly can have a reasonable degree of certainty that you exist based on your own thoughts. You think therefore you are.

Answer 11

my dear friend first of all you have to search yourself and find out who you are?then only you can think about proving about your existance.moreover as a computer cannot comment upon the person operating it,likewise your senses and memory will be helpless in this process.