Can we be sure that the world we experience is not just a figment of our imagination?

Answer 1

why the heck would i want to imagine my death and if it was i would imagine my a vida geurra in bed

Answer 2

YES, we can be sure the world we experience is not just a figment of our imagination. The reason is surprisingly simple: it is impossible to believe otherwise.

I mean this in all seriousness. Do you really think you -- or anyone -- could actually believe, and live as if you believe, that the world is a figment of your imagination? Sure, you can entertain the notion as a clever hypothesis, but could you ever actually believe it? That is, could you ever examine all the experience you have had, and all the experience that other people tell you they have had, and come to the conclusion that it's all in your head?

Obviously not. Therefore, you must believe that the world exists outside your head.

It can be objected that there is a big difference between 'reality' and 'certainty in belief.' In other words, just because we can't help but believe the world is real does not mean that objectively it really is real. Belief doesn't make it so.

But this objection falls apart on examination. The objection presupposes that there is such a thing as objective reality -- something 'out there' beyond my perceptions, to which it is my responsibility to conform my beliefs. But how can we possibly conform our minds to objective reality if objective reality is by definition completely beyond the reach of human thought or experience? Yes, one can engage in idle chitchat about the purely abstract possibility that we are in a situation like the one depicted in The Matrix, but so what? Such things are irrelevant, because everyone already knows they are false.

What I am arguing is not that human conviction about the world is the basis for being convinced of its reality. I am arguing instead that there exists a continuum between human perception (the combined force of sense perception and reasoning ability) and the world out there -- human beings are the kind of beings who live in the world and experience the world. The alternative which denies the reality of the world we experience must end by also denying human reason itself. And if we do that, why are still bothering to talk about it?

(A second reason for believing in the reality of the world of experience is the existence of interpersonal dialogue. Could you have imagined me? Could I have imagined you? I think not. If you ask a question about something of which you are honestly ignorant, and you receive an answer that gives you completely new information, or a completely new insight, how could it have come from your own imagination? It makes no sense. And further, when you love, is it possible that the one you love, the astonishingly unique, wonderful individual you have come to know more deeply than anyone else in the world, is a mere figment of your imagination?? It is absurd and offensive even to contemplate the idea.)

Answer 3

How do you mean "just a figment of our imagination"?

How would things be different if it weren't a figment of our imagination? How could you (ever) tell that it was a figment of our imagination.

When we say "its just a dream" we mean that we will wake up and things will be different. If we say that, say, a pint of beer is "illusory" we mean that if we tried to pick it up and drink it we would fail. As Gilbert Ryle said: for there to be bad coins there have to be good coins. For the world we experience to be a figment of our imagination there has to be another world that we can experience, just as for it to be a dream we have to have a state of wakefulness.

Now if there is another "real" world to contrast with our imaginary world we have to consider how we will experience it. Presumably we will die and go to the afterlife. Fine, but WE will go to the afterlife - if I progess from one room to another the old room doesn't stop being real. If we will never come into contact with the other world and its effects then I have to question how the other world can be called "real" when it is THIS world that we experience.

Answer 4

Your question reveals philosophical naivety. This question can only be asked as part of the 500 year old debate on dualism: how to reconcile the mind and the material world. IF you regard the world as a 'figment of our imagination' then you are broadly an idealist, read Berkley.. But even if you are an idealist, it is not a 'figment', why do you assume that things are 'real' only if they are mind independent? My own guess is: Things are both mind dependent / independent .. our 'imagination' imparts upon objects and things a particular use conception this limiting the myriad ways we can experience these things in to one. That is why modern art places everyday objects in strange contexts to make us see things once again outside our concepts, to get back some of the mind -independence of the object.

Answer 5

A figment of our imagination that lasts 80+ years would be some imagination, but I guess we cannot be sure. It would be nice to think that after 80+ years when we die, we actually snap out of our "daydream" and then continue to live our real life....but that might mean we are without those who have been loved one's in our imaginary world, and to start from scratch all over again might be hard work...but for some who have lived a miserable life, it will be a godsend. I love my partner and children, but it might be fun to be on the single scene again!! Cor, listen to me going off in my own separate imaginary world, within this world that is within the figment of my imagination!

If you're still with me, well done lol.

Answer 6

If `now` is a figment of your imagination, where are you situated in relation to this unreal dimension. Are you dreaming / living in another dimension? You are certainly not just an observer , a ghost peering into another world, because you have no awareness, or consciousness of anything other than this place, this time, right here, right now.

Answer 7

You stub your toe and you know that the world is not just a figment of your imagination.

Answer 8

I like the idea that you are prepared to be humble enough not to assume that we have a full understanding of what's going on. When we are dreaming, for example, it seems real when we are in that particular state of mind. Perhaps when we die (lose the physical body), we enter another level of consciousness. I think that we should keep an open mind. Science cannot recreate the universe: All it is doing is trying to explain it in other terms. But, the best map of Europe, for example, is Europe itself. Any other representation is bound to be inferior.

Answer 9

No, but if it is just a figment of our imagination it is still the only reality we have and it should be glorified.

Answer 10

Granted there's a separation between our cognition or mental representation of it and what it must actually and physically be but when you see people jump out of a burning skyscraper after some religious despots have decided to fly highjacked airliners into it, you kind of assume it isn't a figment of imaginaton.

Answer 11

We cannot be sure, but it wouldn't matter anyway. Each individual experiences the world in a unique way. Maybe death is just us waking up from a nap.