Do we REALLY exist?

[Rebdragon]

On-topic: If solopsism is true, none of you exist. That would mean that I could manipulate the perception, correct?

 

 

 

So I'm going to test this. I just caused everyone to die and the souls of everyone just formed a new entity. The world is now black and has a reddish hue. In 1000 years, the world, the sun, the moon, the solar system, the galaxy, and the entire Universe will fade away. Time will restart.

 

 

 

Oops. I guess it didn't work.

 

For your will is not strong enough, grasshopper :-$ .

[x_bow80]

Yep. Simple as that. :wink:

 

 

 

Another question like this: Do we really die? Or do we just move into a new body without knowing?

 

 

 

There are sooooooo many questions like this.

[Nenga]

I've often thought about this in school or when i'm realy bored (usually at school) That is a good question. How do we know if we exist? If anyone around us exists? If this world is real? I belive we don't know because that is one of the many questions we are not ment to know. I've often wondered if I realy exist, rather then anyone else.

[dacona]

the thing is - if we were a being - a floating brain if you will - then that means we couild just be imaganing ourselfs as alive human beings with arms, legs and even a head, but that might be existant in imagination - true if everythin here is made from imagination and we still have imagination in the imagination then we must not be using all of our imagination in the real (to the floating brain) realm, in wich if we used all of our imagination to the floating brain real, we might be able to grow legs. (i wuv to confuz ppls with logic that hurts) :XD:

[Hume]

We can not just be a being, floating and imagining a world for the simple reason that we require our senses to imagine. As this brain i would have no ability to know where i actually was, no touch, smell, taste, sight or sound could i sense. So how would I possibly imagine an entire world with these things when in reality i would not know what these things were. As an example of what it would be like, try imagining a new colour, you can not. There must be something in which i percieve and experience to be able to imagine that. Just like all of our ideas of beings that do not exist are made up of pre-existing materials or feelings which we have experienced.

 

 

 

The only version of solipsism that is possible is if we were a brain in a vat, hooked up to eletronical impulses which would initiate these experiences.

[dacona]

We can not just be a being, floating and imagining a world for the simple reason that we require our senses to imagine. As this brain i would have no sense of where i actually was, no touch, smell, taste, sight or sound could i sense. So how would I possibly imagine an entire world with these things when in reality i would not know what these things were. As an example of what it would be like, try imagining a new colour, you can't. There must be something in which i percieve and experience to be able to imagine that. Just like all of our ideas of beings that do not exist are made up of pre-existing materials or feelings which we have experienced.

 

 

 

The only version of solipsism that is possible is if we were a brain in a vat, hooked up to eletronical impulses which would initiate these experiences.

 

 

 

what if the brains imagination had made sences in this world. if this is possible then in the floaty brain reality our imagination could possibly run on anything, and nothing.

[Hume]

Everything our brain imagines is based upon experience, you're saying that our brains are something that they are not. They can not just make up objects without experience of objects.

[arizark]

hah this thread reminds me of Bill Hicks when he said "Today a young man on acid realized that all matter is mearly energy condensed through a slow vibration, we are all one consciousness experiencing itself subjectively, life is only a dream and we are the imaginations of ourselves. Here's Tom with the weather."

[Nom]

For anyone who watches LOST, I think the episode "Dave" sums this up. Basically, one of the characters, Hurley, experiences a recurrence of one of his old psycological problems -- his imaginary friend, Dave. Dave tries to convince him that nothing that is happening to him is real, because Dave is there on the island now, right? Well, to make a long story short, another survivor from the other section of the plane asks Hurley, "There was a man who had a broken leg from the crash. I bandaged him up and tried to help him, but he died, as did many others. What was his name?" And of course Hurley couldn't answer.

 

 

 

Basically what I'm saying is, if this is all our imagination, we should be omniscient, correct? We should know everything that goes on. So, how do we explain others? If anyone were to reply to this, they would do so because they had their own thoughts on the question, which would make them an individual. And I would be insulting all of you to say that you do not exist, that you're just a figment of my imagination.

[Giordano]

I sure hope we don't exist!

 

 

 

~Defender~

 

This takes the cake, really. Do you really want to be wiped out from the face of the earth or the harddrive?

[Skate4u]

hmm sometimes i think that too..like my whole rs carrer is just a dream or my whole life to now is a dream that i will wake up as a baby if only it cud happen :P

[ITooLateI]

Technically, the person asking the question can only be sure of him or herself existing. You are correct that it is possible (but not likely or plausible) that we all be figments of your imagination. However, from my perspective, you would be a figment of my imagination.

 

 

 

No way to get this question right because it is all of a matter of point of view.

[sohkmj1]

>.< Please count to a hundred before thinking about this, it's just too deep for stupid mortals like us to comprehend.

[navyplaya]

Everything our brain imagines is based upon experience, you're saying that our brains are something that they are not. They can not just make up objects without experience of objects.

 

 

 

Exactly. But this is only when our brains are working right. People who think they are god, surely do not experience being god.

 

 

 

So if your brain is not working right, then everything around you could be made up in your imagination.

[Hume]

Of course not, our ideas of God come from our already pre-existing experiences. Omnipotence, omnipresence, omniscience, perfection and infinite existance all are forms are things we experience taken to another level. Descartes argued that we can not imagine things we do not experience, such as perfection and so the idea must have come from something greater than us, which was God. However perfection is a subjective trait, we can not experience it but we can assign abilities and traits to something in order to make that perfect. I exist in and experience a finite universe, God is perfect so he must be neccessary and therefore must exist infinitely. You can see how these things therefore come about from what we already experience.

[navyplaya]

But does it come from experience alone? Or can it also come from knowledge, because again, someone who thinks they are god surely does not have experience with god, but rather has past knowledge of god. But also, you could have that past experience and or knowledge, because if you were crazy and everything around you was your imagination, then if you were at one time not crazy, you surely wouldn't have any recollection of it.

[Hume]

And where does knowledge come from? Experience (or a priori propsitions which are not relevant). We do not experience God, we experience the attributes in God on this earth then apply them infintley.

[dutycalls5609]

I love these debates. I myself, am a Christian, but in a hypothetical sense:

 

 

 

What if the God(s) we humans worship are our creators...but they're normal beings with their own gods. We're their little pets, their grade school science project. Their baking soda volcano, if you will.

 

 

 

It's all very Matrix-y.

 

 

 

I do believe life is all real, but...wow. I'm normally a deep thinker, but this is making my brain hurt. And your brain doesn't even have nerve endings!

[Crazykid1321]

Yes we do exist, but we are merely the bactrica in God's Left-over Thanksgiving dinner.

 

 

 

Yes, that made no sense.

[underu2000]

But does it come from experience alone? Or can it also come from knowledge, because again, someone who thinks they are god surely does not have experience with god, but rather has past knowledge of god. But also, you could have that past experience and or knowledge, because if you were crazy and everything around you was your imagination, then if you were at one time not crazy, you surely wouldn't have any recollection of it.

 

Knowledge is just inference, which is of course derived directly from past experiences. When you come down to it, the human brain is capable of imagining nothing, and can hardly contemplate even minor warps in reality. So regardless of whether you're crazy or not, whatever it is you know is because you reasoned it is true from the evidence you learned in the past. And such evidence is obtained from the memory of the past, and not anywhere else.

 

Long story short, human brain needs more RAM.

 

But the real question is, are you crazy, or is everyone else in the world crazy? (Granted other people exist)

[navyplaya]

Or is everyone crazy, and therefore everyone lives in "their own world" with different things happening everywhere, and to different people a same person is doing different things at once :-s

 

 

 

 

 

Also think about this...

 

 

 

Gravity effects the curvature of light right? So everything that has a large gravitational pull effects the way you see something. So what if we are all realllly super skinny, but large bodies in space pull our light in ways that make us all look larger than we really do. :XD:

[ITooLateI]

I don't think that the gravity thing would do what you say it would. There are too many other outside influences that effect weight and mass in order for that to be true.

 

 

 

However, I did like your statement before that =P~

[Brandon_7]

If you really don't believe you exist, run out in the middle of the busiest intersection in your city. And when you get hit by a car, tell me how real that pain is and if it "really exists".

[navyplaya]

If you really don't believe you exist, run out in the middle of the busiest intersection in your city. And when you get hit by a car, tell me how real that pain is and if it "really exists".

 

 

 

Pain is a feeling that can just as much be imagined as a person.

[Brandon_7]

If you really don't believe you exist, run out in the middle of the busiest intersection in your city. And when you get hit by a car, tell me how real that pain is and if it "really exists".

 

 

 

Pain is a feeling that can just as much be imagined as a person.

 

 

 

Oh, ok. So almost everyone on Earth imagines the exact same thing. I see now. :roll: