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How do I know anything really exists?

dust1n

Zindīq
What is "existence" then? What does it mean to exist?

To exist means to be perceivable but to persist without perception as well.

As explained earlier, though now I am thinking that I do exist, because of the example of being black out drunk. I do exist past perceiving to exist.. I think. Or I stop existing temporarily because I do not perceive.. one of the two.
 

Sunstone

De Diablo Del Fora
Premium Member
Does it matter whether or not anything really exists? What would change? What would be different?
 

dust1n

Zindīq
Does it matter whether or not anything really exists? What would change? What would be different?

Nothing would actually change, seeing how it's just one or the other - and that the implications of one of the other explain how I perceive the world exactly how I currently perceive. If the answer is either one, it's always been so and nothing would have changed.
 

Comicaze247

See the previous line
are you serious?:facepalm:
Yes.

what is more accurate?

considering animals typically have less well develop optical functions

or the fact they only see certain spectrums of light

how is that more accurate?
1) Can you see in the dark?
2) How Different Animals See The World; Animal Vision
3) Do you really think that vision is the only way to perceive things?

as such animals are subject to the limitations of their own perceptions also.....
Did I say something that suggested that I thought that animals don't have limitations?

ego smego....:shrug:
The human ego warps everything we perceive. (Keep in mind, I'm not saying that we all function this way, but the majority of humanity does.)
-Ever notice how, on the road, everyone going slower than you is and idiot, and everyone going faster than you is crazy? What is it that's making you perceive it that way?
-In some cases, the same person can interpret the same thing said to them by the same person in the same context in different ways depending on their mood. For example: Why is it that, for some, seeing somebody else having a great day while they're having a crappy one makes them feel even worse? Sometimes even angry at that person? Why would that person's happiness affect their own? Is that reality?

I don't think humans are any less perceptive than other animals. If dogs or spider monkeys could tell you their thoughts about things, you'd think they were just as stupid as humans.
Have you ever noticed how animals tend to be better judges of character than we humans are?
Have you ever noticed how animals panic long before we humans even get a hint that a tornado, hurricane, earthquake, etc., is about to hit?
There are different kinds of intelligence. We humans had these, but they're too deeply buried now. Sometimes it peeks out a bit again (instinct/intuition), but often times, we ignore it.
 

nero null

Architect / Adventurer
Well, something must exist. Descartes would say that you could be certain of your own existence at least. You might be no more than a brain in a jar, but you can't wonder about existence without existing yourself, that's just too weird to be.

Of course, what exists beyond ourselves is less certain. How can I be sure, to any reasonable extent that there is anything out there beyond the "me?" To tell the truth, I'm not really even sure that I care. There's solipsism, this idea that I'm creating an entire artificial reality that I alone occupy and populate with figments, but if I have no awareness of it, then these entities exist apart and distinct from what I deem to be "myself."
 

dust1n

Zindīq
Well, something must exist. Descartes would say that you could be certain of your own existence at least. You might be no more than a brain in a jar, but you can't wonder about existence without existing yourself, that's just too weird to be.

Of course, what exists beyond ourselves is less certain. How can I be sure, to any reasonable extent that there is anything out there beyond the "me?" To tell the truth, I'm not really even sure that I care. There's solipsism, this idea that I'm creating an entire artificial reality that I alone occupy and populate with figments, but if I have no awareness of it, then these entities exist apart and distinct from what I deem to be "myself."

Good post Nero, welcome to RF.

I would basically agree. If it was real or fake, I would never know, and it honestly has no effect on my life.
 
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