Do you think that people/things dont exist until you can see them?

Question

Edmund: thanks I think you're the only one who got my (admittedly badly worded) question!

Tim C: OMG That's exactly how I felt when I was younger too! I dont believe that anymore but still occasionally like to entertain the idea in my head, for my own amusement!

Answer 1

I think this is misconception of the idea that our subject is subject to our conditioning.

If I can make an example of what I mean...

When you look at the grass you say it is green as do I.. However this is because we have been taught it is green.. What I actually see may actually not be the same as what you see but we both know it as green all the same.

First I would concentrate on understanding the components of your own existence fully. Do you really exist or are you just a creation of my imagination....? If you do exist then what are you? Are you your body? Are you your Brain.... are you your Soul or Spirit?

Are your thoughts really yours? or are they just a bundle of conditioned responses?

Answer 2

Do you mean this in a literal sense (i.e. appears only when you set sight on it) or just your own perception of an object being real or existing are far your personal experience go?

I think all human being shares the same faculty of sight, hearing, touch, smell, and taste. Since in MOST experiments, most of the information collected by our sensory faculty appears to be consistent from one individual to the next, then I would say in the context of our present existence as human beings living on earth, yes things or objects exist even when you are not aware of its existence or presence.

I think it's somewhat egocentric to think that just because we have not personnaly experienced, seen, touched, tasted, smell something, it makes that thing unreal...

Philosophically I can see how this can be such a tempting subject for debate, but while our (humanity's) perception of reality may indeed be different from how say a dog, a cat, or any animals senses the world does not make it any more or less real than how other organism perceived the world.

Answer 3

I don't believe that they exist even if I do see them.


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

Answer 4

The speeding train, or the supernova do not know if you see them. Your perception of them could be whatever you conjure. A train can be a land whale and a supernova can be a blink in the sky. You worst enemy may seem like a kind person and their machinations like help.
The brain cannot tell the difference between reality and perception, and the Hispaniola chief that first saw Columbus's ship, didn't see it because it didn't fit his matrix.

Answer 5

Some people have proposed that existence is only there because I think it. "When I close my eyes the light goes out."

However, this means you do not exist to read this answer since you are the creation of my crazed mind.

Since you do exist to read and I exist to write there must be a universe to exist in.

Answer 6

I think I know what you mean.

Like, for example, people don't really exist in your mind. For example, walking around down town passing people who you've never talked to and I might never talk to them, they almost don't even exist. I think that that might be a reason why it might not be so hard to go to war for some people, because we might not see them.

I suppose that it could be a selfish way to think about people. Being a bit oblivious to the fact that these are people, you know?

Or people on line. They don't really exist in some ways. But it's really more than just seeing someone.

Answer 7

no they dont exist to us untill we persieve something of them but they do exist to others, if everyone in the world stood in a line facing the same way we can only see the people infront of us for some distance but those people can percieve others further away, if you get me, everything exists as both a projection of others minds and as a projection of itself sort of like the person who you are and the person others see you to be.

Answer 8

They say, 'It is better to have tried and failed than never to have tried at all.' How do they know this? Have they conducted scientific tests and replicated results independently, or is this just rhetoric designed to encourage us all to be heroic? What's so wrong with giving up and backing down? Aren't we all just better off learning to accept whatever we don't like and to conform with whatever we wish we could change? I'm only teasing. In your heart you know that you must fight your corner now. You are right.
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Answer 9

Not quite sure what you mean although the latest theory is the everything happens by chance(glove theory)
If there is only one glove in a box, you don`t know whether it is left or right until you open the box

Answer 10

Is this related to the thing about there being no noise if no-one hears the tree fall? It's hard to say. I think they exist since we are all connected. Although I can't see all of them their actions affect me indirectly.