Can you prove you exist?

Question

Consider this first: it's entirely possible that we are just a brain in some laboratory run by aliens or mad scientists, and we're being programmed to see what we see, hear what we hear, feel what we feel, etc. For example, maybe I'm just being programmed to think that I'm sitting in front of a computer typing this question. Maybe someone or something is altering the neurons and pathways in my brain to make my brain think that I have fingers that are typing on a keyboard, maybe they're just making me think that I'm sitting on a couch. It's possible to make someone hallucinate by altering their brain chemicals, and often those hallucinations are just as real as, well, what others call reality. Schizophrenics, for example...

And because I know someone will say "cogito ergo sum," I think therefore I am, can't we really only prove "cogito ergo cogito," I think therefore I think?

What do you think?

Answer 1

I dunno....

Answer 2

The question you described assumes that you exist, and basically relies on 'cogito ergo sum' as its foundation. You aren't describing a situation in which you don't exist, just one where everything else doesn't exist as you imagine it. ("we are just a brain in a laboratory" -- you're the brain, thus you exist.)

Descartes uses thinking as a proof of his existence because he sees that he is capable of thinking, and therefore there must be *something* generating those thoughts. That something must exist. Yes, it only proves that he thinks (not that he's a man, or that "reality" is really the way he perceives it), but it at least proves that he exists to think. In the case of this question, you exist at least as a brain being manipulated by an outside force to perceive certain things.

I think your question goes to a field of philosophy called "epistemology" -- how we know what we know. The philosopher David Hume wrote about this. He says that ultimately, you have no objective way of knowing that you can trust your senses (for reasons like what you said), nor can you objectively trust your experience (since you can't be sure the future will be the same as what you experienced in the past), nor can you trust cause and effect (because all you really know is that x follows y in time, not that x necessarily causes y or that y will always follow x -- see experience, above). Thus, there is no way to know whether "what you think is real" actually is "Real."

Hume winds up saying that despite this, the only choice is to act under the assumption that "what you think is real" is in fact, real. It's the only way you can act in any meaningful way, even if it's only meaningful to you.

Answer 3

I think you are giving yourself too much existence by even saying that your brain is being programmed. You do not even have to have a brain. What are we really? We are electricity. We are unmeasurable. We are like light. I am talking if this is the real world we still do not really exist. Our bodies may exist but we are simply a charge that resides in our brain. We are something else. We are not these bodies. Your existence requires only the brain because it is a house for our essence. Theoretically it could be possible to take this essence and store it on a computer chip or some other medium. You and I are nothing in a sense.

Answer 4

I think you are missing the point of the Cogito.

Even if am just a brain in some laboratory, I exist (as a brain in a laboratory). I can doubt that my body is as I perceive it, I can doubt that the world around me is as it appears, but I cannot logically doubt my own existence, because the act of doubting requires one to exist in order to perform it.

Furthermore, we can't logically believe that we are alone in the world, as somebody would have had to have put the brain into the jar. So, no matter what hyperbolic scenario you imagine, there must always be an "I" and an "Other".

(Look up Solipsism in Wikipedia sometime, if you are really interested in pursuing this subject.)

Answer 5

Wow! Someone who uses Latin!
O.K. First things first: it seems that you did not start with Socrates, go through Plato and Aristotle, Marcus Aurelius, down to Bertrand Russell and other modern philosophers.
If you did, you would know that there really is no absolute knowledge: everything is based upon assumptions.
First, you have to assume that you hear, see, smell, taste and feel. There is no way you can prove it: you must assume it.
Therefore, no one can prove or disprove that they exist.
Perhaps this is all a dream...
One of my favorites that I pose to people (those few who have the ability to think) is:
Which is more important: Reality
...or the appearance of reality.
Think about that.
If a person, for whatever reason, thinks he/she was mistreated during childhood, that becomes that persons "reality", irregardless of what actually did happen.

Answer 6

I just poked myself. And even if we were just a brain in some laboratory run by aliens or mad scientists, we would still exist. I would think if we were being programmed to do and think and feel certain ways, it'd be even more obvious we were just existing, and not living.

Answer 7

You should make a movie! This sounds very Matrix-y to me. Although I love the Matrix, I try not to think too hard about whether or not reality is reality or... a matrix I suppose. As far as I'm concerned, I'm really here and you're really there and that cute boy in my acting class is really there and the computer is really right in front of me and we can all be happy and, if reality isn't really reality, ignorant.

Answer 8

the act of existing happens because you are alive or the continuance of being. If in fact we were being controlled like droids or some such you still exist because they allow you to exist. Being present or creating your own reality is entirely personal however, the idea of existence is just being alive whether it by free will or controlled. I exist because i am continually being, I am present. If I die I no longer exist whether by created thought or not.

Answer 9

If I can, I'd slap you (not to promote any hate between us, of course). Was I programmed to do that? Maybe, maybe not. But wouldn't your instinct be to slap me back, not because you were told to, but it was just something that came by naturally?

I don't like the fact that we're not doing things by free will, but if this was true, hypothetically, then it shouldn't matter what we wish to do, because we're being watched for it and examined and such.

Answer 10

Of course, you could spend years and years wondering about this. It's best not to think about it. Just enjoy your life. Questions like this are just going to sidetrack you from doing things you want to. Life's short.

Answer 11

perhaps you your self are on the same page i am on.
for i get that same reacquiring dream that you just punch in this computer sight.or is it for a moment i was awaken to see reality?????then brought back here???? many questions,but not so many proof of answers.
all will be answered soon. we have to wait patiently.