what would you think of an idea that cannot be proven or disproven??

Question

for emaple it cannot be proven or disproven that anythin outside your self exists.

what would you think?

Answer 1

I don't really bother with things that cannot be proven or disproven. There's no reason to believe either way.

Answer 2

I'm a pragmatist. If something can not be proven or disproven either way, then it's not a whole lot of use to me.

For example, gods. Haven't seen any evidence or a rational reason yet why I should start believing in them. (And yes, Pascal's wager has been thoroughly deflated.)

With regards to solipsism, the onus in that case would be to prove that the world around me _didn't_ exist. The world certainly behaves in a manner much more consistent with it existing independently of my thoughts, so that's the way I treat it. Although even from a strictly philosophical view, solipsism is still pretty useless and baseless.

Then again, you could just be a figment of my imagination, in which case I'm wasting my time. I think I'll just go to my imaginary bed now. :-)

Answer 3

Who would assert that it cannot be proven and when would you believe them? Only if they had a convincing proof. So somebody comes along and proves that some proposition is undecidable , not a consequence of a collection of axioms.
Here's a quick example. Suppose you have 10 axioms that you operate with in your field or whatever. You would expect that they are not redundant, that none of them is a consequence of the other 9. Each one you believe wholeheartedly in as parts of your foundation. Yet you have no formal proof of any of them. Are they interesting and mysterious?
People can be convinced without a formal proof because it's
so much easier. They can go with plausible arguments.

So what do you mean by "proof" in your question?

Answer 4

How do you prove something? I personally don't think too many things can be proven with certainty. On a very elementary level with very simple and concrete definitions perhaps but to think abstractly, no proof. How do you know that solipsism doesn't exist? If it does, then nothing outside of your mind exists!

Answer 5

No idea can be proven outright - nothing,its all speculation.

To prove something presupposes that a thing has absolute limits whereas there is nothing that does'nt partake of infinity - nothing whose boundaries do not vary. Everything is one thing at one time,and another at other times.All we do now is take what gaps we can find, set up milestones, and declare them irremovable.

Answer 6

Such ideas are great.... give us great flexibility to manoeuvre.... we can either believe or disbelieve depending on whatever the situation demands... we are not stuck with any unalterable truth here.

Answer 7

What does it matter? Why does it have to be proven, or not? Why can't it just be an idea?

Answer 8

I'd say you've been reading a lot of Freud's writings

Answer 9

If a tree fals and you're not there are you gonna hear it? give the weed

Answer 10

I'm not too sure, as long as they don't come down to earth and probe me.