WHAT makes YOU know THAT you ARE alive?

Question

Do you think some people exist but are dead?

Basically what makes you know that you exist... if one exist can they be dead inside... but then in the grand scheme of life, did they exist if they were dead?

Answer 1

well i can hear and feel my breathing.
i think if you can feel or hear your breathing you are alive.
that would be my definition for humans.

Answer 2

Being alive is defined by the sorts of things I'm doing right now. Being dead is defined by what organisms other than me are doing to the body (decomposing it) I had when I was alive. I'm alive because the other organisms are NOT winning right now. But that could change at any time. I just realized I'm not very alive dwelling on the possibility that I might be dead at any time. I hope that picture gives you a satisfactory answer. If not, you can just go on dwelling about maybe being dead. And, guess what, some day your wonder will come true--yup, you won't be alive anymore. Lol.

Answer 3

This is a very old philosophical question. That faculty which makes you know that you exist is called Consciousness or Awareness. This is really a circular answer as the word "know" presupposes awareness. In other words, Consciousness makes you conscious of being conscious. Obviously this is no answer at all. The great minds through the ages have been unable to explain consciousness. Some thinkers of today try to explain it. Daniel Dennett in his book has an explanation, but my understanding of that is that he uses external signs, that is behavior and seems to admit that there is no way of explaining the subjective feeling of consciousness. As to the other question, which I interpret as knowing or believing that other people are conscious of themselves: ultimately we are unable to be aware of the consciousness of others ("dead meaning other people being like machines"). We assume that others are aware of themselves the same as we. As to the word "exist", we take it for granted that everyone around us exists. Thinking that they might not would seem to serve no purpose. However, I think it was the ancient Greeks who came of with the philosophy of Solipsism which says that you exist and everything else is just a dream. It seems to me that the answers to all these questions are unanswerable and so each of us chooses to believe whatever we do on faith.

Answer 4

My Husband and I are apart. Our love makes us alive. When we are in each others arms no one else even exists. Being apart makes us feel dead, yet we exist. We are pretending to live, going through the motions of life like the walking dead. With out the happiness that comes from each others touch we are dead. Like our souls have gone into hibernation or something we are waiting to live again. Waiting for that time when we are back in each others arms. It has been 11 months since we have looked into each others eyes. True love has it casualties and we are two of them.

Answer 5

When you wake from your deep sleep. When you rem sleep and recall a dream or forget it but know you dreamed. When you have a physiological reaction to heat, cold, etc... When you have an orgasmic experience. When you fight or flight. There are endless answers . What it seems is that you are questioning your own existence and if so then touch a stranger and see the reation they give you. If you get in a dispute and are afraid or upset basically if you feel a emotion then you know that you life or exist!

Answer 6

Well obviously a heart beat is what makes you alive, but a person can have a heart beat and still be in a vegatation state and then I would concider them dead on the outside to the rest of the world but not on the inside.

Answer 7

I am not sure I quite understand your question. Are you talking about ghosts and spirits? Then you have lost me. But if it is emotional death you are talking about, yes, a lot of people are incapable of experiencing strong emotions. I have seen people dead so I know I am not yet that and thankfully I am not emotionally dead either. I can still love people and be loved in return.

Answer 8

Every single thing that I think and every thing that I do is original and my own and Im nobodys product. I dont listen to music because its cool i listen to it because it speaks to my soul. I hate what I hate and I like what I like and I'll take advice when I feel like it but im nobody's person but my own. I hate my limitations and that I am always trying to tear out of the mold I am supposed to fit in. I DONT wanna go to college I DONT want stability and I DONT give a rats *** about anyone else and I DONT CARE SO THERE. To move along with the flow of a river someone else laid out for you long ago is to be dead wood drifting. I wanna be a sea snake >:P

Answer 9

what if I'm the only one who's alive and all the others is just existing for purpose to make it seems real and the only real character is me, and behind all of this they are watching and excited and curious on what course of actions I will choose to take.

by the way you will know that your alive mainly because you feel pain, you are most alive when your life is in real danger.. supposed you are being chased by a black jaguar.

Answer 10

If you can look in a mirror, and see a shine from those eys you were born with then the soul is still there inside bursting with life, the you know you are alive and well.

Answer 11

several times i think i am the thoughts of another. An abstract world of emotions that seem so normal to us because we are born into it. What is normal? We dpnt know. If in reality humans had been single ceeled and capable of flying. If walls grew into the earth instead of out and if music ran backwards. We would think that is normal.