....I am studying this in english and was given these questions: What can we know for certain about the existence of the material world around us? Can we prove any of it actually exists as physical matter? Can we even prove our own existence?
I don't think this way which makes it hard to answer these questions. Could someone please help?
Thanks everyone.
2007-09-23 09:43:16 · 13 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Hi! I have found this web site that I think will answer all your questions. It is an easy to read and understand, and I think it is better for you to look at it because it is a little long.
www.transcendentalists.com
www.transcendentalism.us
gatita_63109
2007-09-23 14:05:43 · answer #1 · answered by gatita 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
It's more a philosphical question that you can almost think of as like the movie "The Matrix"...
I mean really, how do you know that you really are awake and living... maybe you've been in a coma for the past so and so years of your life and been dreaming everything???
People can say that there are ways of determining this, but how do you really know that tommorow you won't wake up as another completely different person with a completely different life???
Is it just because you have sensed that you have lived all of these years without anything yet to prove otherwise...???
Maybe the proof you seek hasn't found you yet... Truth runs on it's own schedule, not anyone else's...
Do you understand what I'm trying to say??? I hope so for you shall have your answer then...
2007-09-23 17:06:13 · answer #2 · answered by Jihad Jill 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No we can not.
Just kidding.
The religion of transcendentalism can be analyzed accurately by looking at the people who promote it, and the wealth they have gathered for themselves.
Remember the Indian Maharajah Mahesh Yogananda? Who built the commune on the west coast, and tried to get his people elected into political office by the means of germ warfare? (his followers infected local restaurant salad bars with e-coli bacteria)
shows that even the Maharajah did not believe in transcendentalism.
Another religion that mirrors this thinking is the Christian Scientist Church, of which they teach, there is no physical, just the mental.
The best way I have to prove the physical is real, is to approach those who believe in nothing but the mind, and that what we perceive is immaterial, and ask them to give me their money and all their possessions, so as to free them from the imprisonment of the 'material'.
Haven't had any takers yet.
2007-09-23 16:48:44 · answer #3 · answered by Tim 47 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
These are well-known philosophical questions, relating to skepticism and extreme skepticism. It is certainly possible to prove your own existence to yourself. "I think, therefore I am." is Descarte's definitive answer to that question. As for the existence of everything else---strictly speaking, you cannot disprove the extreme skeptical stance that it's all some kind of illusion. However, the conclusion of several hundred years of philosophical thought on the matter is that it does not help to think that way---as a practical matter, you might as well believe what your sensory organs tell you is true, because you have nothing else to work with.
2007-09-23 16:51:16 · answer #4 · answered by cosmo 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Transcendental - transcending or (going beyond) that which is known.
Breathing, hearing, seeing, tasting, touching allows man to understand the intricacies, we know as life.
Fall in love with another human and then dispute the existence of physical matter.
Proof of our own existence can only be located within a most beautiful thing called self-realization. The "Awareness" that we are aware.
If man allows the true self to materialize from within this world of illusion, it would be a life well served.
A life well served is a life dedicated to serving ones fellow man.
It is a process of emerging from within the darkness and basking in the "Light of Truth".
Were all in this together, I have confidence in you. All I ask of you is to also have confidence in me. May we share this "Unity".
2007-09-23 17:31:24 · answer #5 · answered by WillRogerswannabe 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
This is all kinda like "New Math", you know 2+2= what ever you think it is, as long as you believe that.
If you can either see or touch it, it is there. Have you ever walked down stairs in the dark, thought that you were at the bottom only to fall down the last two, just because we don't see them doesn't mean that they don't exist. The steps existence is proven when invisible gravity takes its course as we fall.
What other proof do you need that you exist, you are.
2007-09-23 17:06:07 · answer #6 · answered by exodust20 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Wayne Dyer has a book that you may be interested in, The Power of Intention, which explains how everything that we consider to be material is actually just condensed energy. You may also be interested in checking out Quantum Physics - its mind boggling stuff but fascinating. What The Bleep Do We Know?
2007-09-23 16:51:26 · answer #7 · answered by Keltasia 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
We can only know what our senses transmit to our brain and they can be easily fooled, as you know, for instance by the Illusionists.
From all the "inputs" our brain builds up an interpretation, an image that we identify with a word and that for us is "our" reality.
Fortunately we can crosscheck our sensations with other people and also get help from instruments that will "certify" our inner image as being "true" or at least reliable.
2007-09-23 16:55:52 · answer #8 · answered by PragmaticAlien 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
1) We know what we experience, nothing about any "external" other than what "it" instantiates in us.
2) Only if "physical matter" just means the solidity, etc., we experience.
3) Yes, to doubt is proof that something is there doing the doubting
2007-09-23 16:59:02 · answer #9 · answered by neil s 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Do me, these questions seem very easy to answer.
1) Nothing.
2) No.
3) No.
To comment further would just be superfluous redundancy.
2007-09-23 17:12:32 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋