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our sences fools us, and sometimes we have dreams that are so real that who is to say they did not happen, is it okay then to doubt everything

2007-11-05 01:38:57 · 20 answers · asked by paradela e 1 in Arts & Humanities Philosophy

20 answers

Pinch yourself...did it hurt???

2007-11-05 01:44:20 · answer #1 · answered by angel_nurse82 4 · 1 2

I find it a little disappointing how many people seem to equate pain with existance. That it is not so simple can be easily demonstrated - there are people who have lost limbs but still feel pain in them. In fact, as many as 80% of people who have lost a limb still feel it as if it were still there... it can even happen in people who never had a limb at all and were born without it!

Likewise, a lot of people miss the thrust of Descartes' argument. It's not that thinking causes you to exist, but rather than if you think, you are the one who is thinking. Even if a demon is fooling you or everything is just a dream, you are the one who is being fooled or doing the dreaming. There must be an object for these occurrences... and even if everything else you know is a lie, you are the object around which that lie is building. You may not exist in the form you perceive, but you DO exist.

And there is always Occam's Razor, too. The simplest explanation that describes what's going on is usually the correct one. It may be that there are whole universes around you that you cannot perceive, but it is simpler to believe that everything is as it seems. This is not an ironclad proof of all that you see, but it does suggest that if you bet on other possibilities, you will probably lose. Do so, then, at your own risk.

2007-11-05 05:24:19 · answer #2 · answered by Doctor Why 7 · 0 0

As a child I often wondered this myself. I'd question how I got here, why was I in this body, etc. Maybe I was just a weird kid, maybe I was normal but the truth of the matter is is that I AM here and I AM in this body no matter the how's and the why's. How do I know that I exist? Because despite my physical and maturity changes I am still me. I really haven't changed that much. I am not just some ever-changing experiment that was placed on this planet for any old purpose. I can make a difference, I feel, I am passionate, loving and a wonderful companion. Through all of these things and through God I know that I exist and I know its for a purpose.

2007-11-05 01:59:10 · answer #3 · answered by Alaina's Mumma! 3 · 0 0

A philosophy professor placed a chair in front of the class and said, "your exam is to prove that this chair does not exist." The class began writing fervently about the chair and why it could not possibly exist. By acknowledging and describing the chair, the majority of students proved its existence.

One student scribbled a brief note, handed the paper to the professor, and left early. On that paper, the only student who passed the exam wrote, "what chair?".

Animate objects are more complex. Descartes wrote, "I think, therefore I am." The very fact that you question your existence proves you exist, and that whatever you are has the ability to question. Whatever form or quality your existence takes beyond that fact is debatable opinion.

2007-11-05 02:49:13 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 1 0

Put your thumb on the edge of a table and with your other hand pick up a hammer and strike the thumb!
Do you feel that? That's your senses telling you there is something seriously wrong with your thumb!!
You won't get that message unless the thumb, table, and hammer actually do exist.
For a more sensible experiment ...try a kiss of your lover, all the senses will tell you " the moment, the feeling, the taste, the scent are no illusion and boy does this ever a good feeling,,,,I must exist for all of this".

2007-11-05 02:15:34 · answer #5 · answered by the old dog 7 · 0 1

Go get a knife. Cut your palm.

Did it bleed? Did you feel it? The pain, that FEELING inside that lets you know that it happened?

We are real or at least as real as we can be. It's human nature to doubt and to question everything. But you can only take it so far.

You wouldn't be doubting and questioning your own existance if you weren't real, now would you? If so, who is questioning this?

2007-11-05 01:48:33 · answer #6 · answered by ashtonhayes88 2 · 0 1

Descartes said I think, therefore I am. If a demon with infinite powers of trickery could decieve you in every way, then only thing you could ever be sure of is that you exist: "Dubito, ergo cogito, ergo sum" - I doubt, therefore I think, therefore I exist.

There is one unprovable premise though: something that has the property of thinking must exist. So, I guess the jury is still out on that one

2007-11-05 02:58:45 · answer #7 · answered by Mantrid 5 · 0 1

How does one define self awareness? Can a robot become self aware? Do animals or lower life forms have self-awareness? Since we only have our senses, we can only make judgements about our selves using words like pain, hurt, smell, etc. But if you lack any of those senses, then its up to the ones with the senses to observe and record your existence....you wouldn't be able to know of your awareness. The fact that we have consious thought, does that give us self-awareness. Even the most primitive life forms have extincts of awareness, albeit without higher levels of conscious thought.

2007-11-05 06:22:19 · answer #8 · answered by Its not me Its u 7 · 0 1

Sure, it's OKAY to doubt everything. But if you start to get too melancholy just take out a big ole' 5lb. sledge hammer and wack yourself on the hand while it is on a wooden table.

You'll soon enough come back to reality.

2007-11-05 01:48:01 · answer #9 · answered by De Deuce 5 · 0 1

i know
what you mean i think the same thing all the time and i get outcasted or called annoying
cause i aske people just to help me out and describe this to me like how is our brain know how to make our fingers move, how do we walk with out even thinking, and stuff and also on your subject about the dreams
ji once dreamed i was doing "it"
and it actualy felt like i really was

2007-11-05 06:37:11 · answer #10 · answered by jimmy 2 · 0 0

WE see the thoughts running and feel ourselves beneath them trying to know them and try to decide whether to accept certain thoughts or reject them. We feel we exist when we discriminate like that between the right and wrong.

2007-11-05 01:52:19 · answer #11 · answered by ashok 4 · 0 0

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