Can you prove to me that you exist?

Question

Can you prove to me beyond a shadow of doubt that you exist?

If you can't, how can you be sure of anything else?

I don't think it is possible to prove you exist. You could just be a bad dream I have been having for what I believe has been my whole life.

Hurting me won't work because I could just be dreaming that you hurt me also.

Can you prove you exist?

I can't prove to you that I exist either and that is my point. I could be in YOUR dream or fevered mind. You or I could be whacked out of our skulls in an asylum somewhere just hallucinating this.

Meeting would prove nothing except that my dream is vivid at most. Not all dreams can be altered. Only if I know I am dreaming can I change it. If I just think it is a dream, I can do nothing but let the dream play out.

Nothing can be proven so how can I or anyone claim to know for a fact that God does or doesn't exist? It is just our belief in the end and what I believe is no better than what you believe.

Answer 1

I don't actually believe this, but I can technically never be proved wrong. I came up with this theory a little while ago.

What if there are actually parallel universes or whatever, and in each one there is only one living person. Like, this is my universe, because I'm the only one that I know exists. Everyone else can be a shadow or something. And if I never go to Brazil or Prague or wherever, it doesn't actually exist in my world. And everything I do actually effects the world. If I wear my Sabres jersey on the nights they play then they win, etc. If I hold a door for someone or donate money to the poor then I will find a twenty dollar bill on the ground or my girlfriend will randomly decide to drive two hours to visit me for a little. And because I'm the only one living, I won't die. Because the world literally revolves around me I can't die because the world would end. As I grow older and older I will attract press and stuff because I'll forever be the world's oldest man and such. Wouldn't that be cool?

So I guess, I think I exist because I know I think and such, but I can never be sure about anyone else. Kinda interesting if you decide to think about it.

Answer 2

I could but it wouldn't be very practical. We could meet in real life and you could directly observe my person with all five senses providing proof that I exist within the confines of our perceived universe. But it isn't gonna happen, because that would be impractical for both of us.

The fact that I am typing this answer is mild *evidence* I exist.

Ok, technically nothing about our physical universe can be absolutely proven, except 3 things.

A. I think therefor I am. That is absolute, if you have consciousness *you* exist in some shape or form, even if it is in the matrix or a dream. This can only be proven to yourself.

B. Something exists. It obvious, everyone agrees, *something* exists.

C. *something* that exists is eternal. Be it God or the universe itself, absolute nothingness cannot turn into somethingness, or disappear the same way.

Answer 3

If you are questioning the existence of people then how come you are asking them questions ofcourse indirectly you are admitting that all these people do exist oh..... but then you will say its a dream and when its a dream just leave your soul and re enter the dream then question others existence. WELL IN DREAM ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE ...GIVE IT A TRY....

Answer 4

If you're reading this now, I do, if only if in your own mind.

"That which does not exist can never come into existence [that is, it can never even be a thought]; that which exists can never cease to be [at least as an archetype]." From the Bhagavad Gita based on the ideology put forth in the Upanishads.

Answer 5

"Is all that you see or seem but a dream within a dream? "

Poe.

You ask:

"If you can't, how can you be sure of anything else? "

My not proving that I exist to you wouldn't be a measure of my surety or cognition, it would merely be a measure of yours.

I can give birth, eat, crap, pee, sleep, hurt, bleed, sleep, affect other objects and interact with other things both alive and inanimate.

So I need no further evidence for me to be sure that I exist.

Answer 6

Descartes said "I think therefore I am." But this means nothing because David Hume said, "We have as little reason to believe in our minds as we do in a world of objects."
Thus, there is no way to prove to you that I exist.

Answer 7

I think if you stood in the middle of the street and I pulled you away at the last possible moment before a bus ran you over, you wouldn't ask silly questions like this anymore.

Answer 8

For you to admit that you may be having a dream, you must be making the claim that YOU exist, because in fact you claim to be having a dream.

So if you may be dreaming, then you exist. And if you exist, then I must exist right along with you.

If we're both dreaming, then we both exist.

Answer 9

This is the word of Jessica. Therefore you know it's real. Now Jessica says that all those who do not beleive will go to New Jersey for the rest of your life! Repent and you can live on the west coast.

Answer 10

If this is all just a dream, then you would be able to control it because it is coming from your own head. Furthermore it is creepy to think of the possibility that I am the only one that exists and are making you say this.