2007-02-05 05:52:38 · 10 answers · asked by marktron_3000 2 in Arts & Humanities ➔ Philosophy
I have memory of typing the question and others have apparently perceived my question by some means.
2007-02-05 06:32:37 · update #1
Aha, I can. But then, why do you want proof anyway?
2007-02-05 06:58:04 · answer #1 · answered by woman in the well 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Your question has two major wrinkles.
The first is about proof. Proof is not generally a logical, where something is either proved or not. There are levels of proof... some things are almost certainly so, some are probably so, and some are just possibilities. It is difficult to prove you exist with absolute certainly. Other theories are available which serve to explain the facts.
And then we get to the question of existance. What does it mean to exist? And what is included in existance? Do you want to reserve for yourself a life as a biological entity, with thoughts, feelings, and perceptions not entirely unlike my own? Or are you satisfied being a possibly discorporate question asker?
I tend to use both a loose definition of existance and a strict definition of what that includes. So while I will grant that you absolutely exist, the only existance I can be certain of is of an impression in my mind of an entity that I am responding to. The fact that I can name you and percieve you as an entity grants you with certainty the status of 'thought-existance'. At least to me.
This entity seems to have an existance for other answering entities, so I'm also willing to allow that you might have some kind of existance outside of just my mind (mostly by virtue of Occam's razor), but that degree of existance still doesn't necessarily include any kind of a body. For all I know, you are just a personality fragment of another mind or a cleverly-written aritificial intelligence. Thus you have a hazy 'external existance', though not much of one and with a relatively low level of proof.
If you were looking for more than that, I don't think I can help you at this time. Sorry.
2007-02-05 14:01:12 · answer #2 · answered by Doctor Why 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
"I can prove you exist" "I" meaning who or what. and the who or what typed or thought up this question. so it is proved. does not prove that you are a person or a program on the computer
thought i does not say in it self if "I" is a program or a person.
2007-02-05 15:03:21 · answer #3 · answered by flower_from_the_heavens 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Nope, I can not prove that there is a you. I can though prove that there is an energy creating what you typed on the screen...if it was really you who typed it.
2007-02-05 14:07:48 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Nope.
This entire world could be a production of your own imagination or subconscious. You could not even be concious right now. Alternately, you may just be a figment of someone's imagination. You could be a figment of mine. I could be a figment of yours.
2007-02-05 20:16:20 · answer #5 · answered by andromedacblack 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
lol...Doctor Wild!
ok...yes, I can prove that you "exist" in this "reality" by the sense that you used to type this Q...for if you can touch, you're definitely here...lol
2007-02-05 14:24:40 · answer #6 · answered by Alex 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Not without knowing what you consider acceptable proof.
2007-02-05 14:06:18 · answer #7 · answered by Lady G 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Huh? Who said that?
2007-02-05 15:20:18 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Hmm. I don't know about this one....
2007-02-05 13:58:12 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
No, so maybe you don't.
2007-02-05 13:59:33 · answer #10 · answered by Elizabeth Howard 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋