English Deutsch Français Italiano Español Português 繁體中文 Bahasa Indonesia Tiếng Việt ภาษาไทย
All categories

Setting aside biological Sciences and other Life Sciences that would prove this matter of a question, that we really are alive by occurence of the system of operation our bodily functions perform until the time of our death.

2007-03-21 09:14:17 · 21 answers · asked by oscar c 5 in Arts & Humanities Philosophy

Thanks guys for your interest.
To dear Jkkk k- you were almost there. If you feel pain and pleasure, then you must be (in this state of ? to feel it)

My dear, definitely not I think therefore I am.In this matter, anyone who is dead even exists, what do you say?

2007-03-21 09:28:21 · update #1

I am very low in iron and there were few unfortunate times i fainted, the last time i fainted, I woke myself up to realize i felt pain- I scarred my forehead open.

2007-03-21 09:34:05 · update #2

To Sophists.
The question was simply stated here. I will not answer to your question because if I did, I would then have answered my own question.
In Psychology, sensory-deprived brain(unconscious) cannot indeed prove the whole being of itself is alive, How can it? think of it. I fainted and within that span of time, God only knows long(see? i don't even know how long I fainted for). I couldn't tell if I was alive or not.
When people dream, it is only a dream within a dream. How can you tell that it was a dream, while you were unconsciously dreaming? You need to be in this certain state to be able to tell you were dreaming.

2007-03-21 11:16:58 · update #3

It seems like it is a consensus notion that the answer is 'I think therefore I am', this is a given fact, uncontested indeed. But my argument, how can we TELL we're thinking to think that therefore we are? The mind still sobconsciously work even when we're sleeping, no doubts about it, that is why we dream, but how can we talk about that dream to distinguish it was just a dream?. Knowledge does recall the dream.
'I think therefore I am' does answer all these to certain points of convergence, if not all but I am looking at a different angle totally incongruent to the proof of our existence. Simple and practical psychology may help.

2007-03-21 22:36:44 · update #4

Honestly, I am trully astounded how brilliant everyone's ideas are. Everyone is right in this matter.

2007-03-21 22:40:04 · update #5

pardon me for my mispelling 'subconsciously'

2007-03-21 22:41:10 · update #6

In addition it is also known as the bridge between life and death. What is it?, anyone please explain it to my imploring mind. lol

2007-03-21 22:51:44 · update #7

How can it be possible to revive a flatliner? We all know it is possible. The main question is, why do we even bother to revive a flatliner knowing that he is already 'clinically dead'? It is because they still have this, and these doctors are trying to catch it before it walks to that ladder.

2007-03-22 15:18:51 · update #8

We have to be in state of consciousness to be able to tell we are alive.
People who fall into coma, and those suffer from blackouts due to health issues or most of all those who witnessed near-death experience(clinically dead) could not tell they are alive, but technically are alive. In my experience. I could not hear anything then i don't know for how long, but then there was a point in that moment when I was calling myself to wake up (subconciously) then i heard indistinct voices,coming clearer and clearer, and I woke up to see and hear all the people around me. I just past-out from being anemic.
In Philosophy, there is this known 100 steps to the ladder of consciousness- if you come back out of it, you will live, if you keep going , you'll lose your consciousness forever.

2007-03-26 23:02:19 · update #9

21 answers

The very fact that we can tell, proves our being alive.

2007-03-25 20:53:58 · answer #1 · answered by ? 2 · 1 0

We can know that at least our minds (or whatever part of us thinks) exists by the Cartesian proof mentioned by others: "I think, therefore I am". The thought experiment that Descartes posited is this: try to convince yourself that you don't exist. You can't do it, because in the very act of thinking the thought "I don't exist", you are providing yourself evidence that you do. If you didn't exist, there would be no entity to be thinking this thought.

If your question is specifically about our relationship to our biological world (how we know that we are physically alive), then I suspect the existence of sensation is what proves this part. Having once seen, smelled, heard, tasted, and touched things in the world, I can generate memories of those things even when they're not near me (like when I dream), but in order for those sense images to exist in my mind in the first place, I had to have had a body with senses at some point. That is the only way that such sense data could exist in my mind.

Because nothing has happened to me since my life began (since I began having sense experiences) to make me believe that my body is no longer alive, I assume that it is alive, and that I am still functioning in the physical world. Technically it is possible that I am in a coma right now, and have been dreaming for a great deal of my life while thinking that I was still alive, but I deduce from what I know about dreams that this is unlikely. Dreams are very inconsistent, strange, and do not accord with what we know in reality to be possible (i.e., things happen in dreams that we know are not physically possible in real life). I feel safe in concluding, therefore, that until either I have an experience of death or my life starts to take the very strange and inconsistent character of a dream, that I am still alive.

2007-03-21 10:01:14 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 1 0

We are not alive in the sense that we think that we are.

This is more easily understandable if one considers the actual scale of the components of an atom. If one takes into account the fact that the neutrons, protons and electrons of an atom actually have huge spaces between them it becomes clear that the atoms that make up seemingly solid objects are made up of 99+ percent empty space.

This alone does not seem too important till you add the idea that the atoms that make up seemingly solid objects are more of a loose conglomeration that share a similar attraction but never really touch each other.

At first glance this does not really seem relevant, but closer analysis reveals that this adds a tremendous amount of empty space to solid objects that are already made up of atoms that are 99 percent space. When so-called solid objects are seen in this light it becomes apparent that they can in no way be the seemingly solid objects they appear to be.

We ourselves are not exceptions to this phenomenon.

These seemingly solid objects are more like ghostly images that we interpret as solid objects based on our perceptual conclusions.

From this we must conclude that Perception is some sort of a trick that helps us to take these ghostly images and turn them into a world we can associate and interact with. This clever device seems to be a creation of our intellect that enables us to interact with each other in what appears to be a three dimensional reality.

I hope that helps to answered your question.

Love and blessings Don

2007-03-21 13:55:19 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 1 0

We are alive because our senses perceive the world around us.

You may have fainted (in a way slept) but who knows where your mind went? Perhaps a hypnotist can bring it out.

It is similar to dreaming, we may not recall our dreams, but we know that we slept. Like keeping the "pause" button on (during loss of consciousness or "dreamless" sleep), then "play" (when we wake up).

Who can prove that our selves in the dream state is not the self's reality and waking state is only a dream?

2007-03-21 11:53:27 · answer #4 · answered by tranquil 6 · 1 0

We have to believe we are alive, or exist somehow. If not, what would be the point of living (excuse the pun). There is no absolute way to truely prove we are alive, life could be a total mirage or a dream but we because we cannot prove either, we must live in a way that is most beneficial to us in whatever conscienceness we perceive.

2007-03-21 09:27:51 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 1 0

This question is the question of René Descartes (1596 – 1650), a famous mathematician (we're indebted him cartesian coordinate system) and philosoph.
He wanted to build a huge philosophical system, and needed to establish it on an absolutely reliable basis. So he asked : is there any truth I can really be sure about ? Is there anything that is for real, and that won't be a mere illusion ?
He found that the only thing we can be sure about is our existence. Since you think, automatically you deduce from this very basic "live experience", the certainty of your existence.

This proof is known under the name "cogito". taken from the Descartes's sentence "cogito ergo sum". "I think therefore I am".

2007-03-21 09:28:23 · answer #6 · answered by emmanuel 2 · 0 0

For what is the truth, is merely what a large group of people believe. Since the vast majority of people would consider you alive, you are alive in this "reality". However, by my definations of what is true and real, what you believe is true is true to you and that is enough. If you believe you are alive, than you are. If you believe you are dead, than you are. If you believe you are a 13 legged, 7 footed male elephant named Fredica, than you are a 13 legged, 7 footed male elephant named Fredica. It is really just that simple, or at least I believe it is really that simple, therefore to me it is that simple.

2007-03-21 09:38:17 · answer #7 · answered by locomonohijo 4 · 0 0

Well, I could ask you what you mean by the word "alive." I think a lot of "living" people aren't very alive at all. They sleepwalk through their days.

I think we can tell that we are alive when everything we experience (even pain, frustration, tragedy) fills our minds with, um, electricity (that's the best word I can come up with at the moment).

2007-03-21 09:26:43 · answer #8 · answered by dashelamet 5 · 1 0

nothing can be proven for absolute certainty.
can i trust what people tell me? not necessarily
can i trust my own senses? not 100%
are my thoughts my own? maybe? maybe not?
am i certain i'm not an AI? no
unfortunately i have to accept the clues around me even if they are designed to trick my mind(me?) as the only way to reach a conclusion as to whether i am alive
one day, however, i may discover the truth: I AM NOT ALIVE!!

2007-03-21 09:43:41 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 1 0

alongside with the pleasures we get from attractive landscapes, seascapes, sunsets, eating good food, and all that stuff, we even have the full thing approximately helping others. that is all approximately possibilities. i'm an older person. i will look back on my existence and look forward and comprehend it incredibly is MY time and area in the international. I chosen to glorify God interior the failings I do as much as attainable and to be as gentle as i will with others. i'm no longer constantly one hundred% effective at it yet I attempt my ultimate. many times as quickly as we die interior of a technology, 2 on the main, we are forgotten. I certainly have all styles of family participants photos and that i don't comprehend who the folk are. My mum and dad of course, are ineffective so i'm no longer able to ask. I even think of whoever gets those enjoyed photos once I die -- they in all risk won't comprehend or care on the subject of the folk interior the photos. I mean we cherish those family participants photos yet interior the top, once I die, they'll maximum probable be thrown out by ability of somebody (I have not have been given any toddlers). Who might prefer them? no person! nicely, besides, I wanna do as much as i will in this existence -- commute, eat good food, see the sea while attainable, climb mountains for as long as i will. And as quickly as I die, i watch for being with the Lord and notwithstanding he has in save for me.

2016-10-01 07:12:19 · answer #10 · answered by ? 4 · 0 0

We are taught in school if we are breathing, eating, walking that we are alive or anything that does the same as us.It means our heart is beating, which tells me I'm alive. I might feel like death sometimes, but I'm still alive.

2007-03-26 04:25:54 · answer #11 · answered by JBWPLGCSE 5 · 1 0

fedest.com, questions and answers