How do I know if I (or anyone else) exists outside my mind?

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schizoid26
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07 Aug 2012, 8:55 am

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solipsism#section_1

[i]

Interesting philosophic@l arguments

How does one know if anyone else exists?

What if I, in fact, am just a brain in a jar that thinks I'm posting on a bulletin board about autism.

It's nice that pure thought alone can bring me pleasure, even if this is so.



Sparx
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07 Aug 2012, 9:23 am

Nah, you really posted it. Plus, a brain in a jar doesn't have any fingers, so it wouldn't be able to post here anyway.



one-A-N
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07 Aug 2012, 10:09 am

Reality is what seems to be the case. It seems to be the case that you are posting on a bulletin board, and not that you are just a brain.

There is nothing else that seems more likely.



schizoid26
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07 Aug 2012, 11:44 am

What if it's all in my mind, I mean everything? None of you exist but for a thought in my brain. Cool to think about. Makes me rethink how perception alters, or is all there is, to existence. People were thinking about this way before the Matrix



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07 Aug 2012, 11:48 am

We don't exist outside of your mind. You were born into a virtual reality matrix and everyone you know are merely simulations. :P

(Thread moved from Random to PPR for a fuller philosophical treatment)



CSBurks
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07 Aug 2012, 12:13 pm

I thought the same way when I was a young child.



CyborgUprising
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07 Aug 2012, 12:31 pm

We're all living in the Matrix...



TallyMan
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07 Aug 2012, 12:44 pm

CyborgUprising wrote:
We're all living in the Matrix...


As you can see Mr Uprising, we have been watching you for quite some time. You have broken virtually every computer law we have. We know you've been contacted by someone calling himself AngelRho. I does not matter what you think you know about this person; he is considered by many authorities as the most dangerous man alive. All we ask is your cooperation in capturing a known terrorist and we will wipe your slate clean. :P



Awesomelyglorious
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07 Aug 2012, 1:08 pm

Oh, you aren't clever enough to create all of these mental constructs. I mean, the best argument is that you have a really really brilliant unconscious, but honestly, if it isn't your conscious brain creating the constructs, how do you know it is YOUR unconscious and not a SHARED unconscious? The best argument you have is parsimony, but even then the question ends up being on whether your level of skepticism towards other minds is a good model. By even posing the question or considering it, you express some doubt in the truth of solipsism suggesting that you do have intuitions that do not fit well with your solipsist model.



AngelRho
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07 Aug 2012, 1:09 pm

TallyMan wrote:
CyborgUprising wrote:
We're all living in the Matrix...


As you can see Mr Uprising, we have been watching you for quite some time. You have broken virtually every computer law we have. We know you've been contacted by someone calling himself AngelRho. I does not matter what you think you know about this person; he is considered by many authorities as the most dangerous man alive. All we ask is your cooperation in capturing a known terrorist and we will wipe your slate clean. :P
:lol:



naturalplastic
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07 Aug 2012, 1:18 pm

TallyMan wrote:
We don't exist outside of your mind. You were born into a virtual reality matrix and everyone you know are merely simulations. :P

(Thread moved from Random to PPR for a fuller philosophical treatment)


Simulations of WHAT?

If there is no reality then what are they simulating?



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07 Aug 2012, 2:12 pm

Ideas don't exist for their own sake; they function to interpret and adapt to reality. How do I "know" this is so? Because this connection is consistent with ALL the concepts I'm familiar of.



TallyMan
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07 Aug 2012, 2:28 pm

naturalplastic wrote:
TallyMan wrote:
We don't exist outside of your mind. You were born into a virtual reality matrix and everyone you know are merely simulations. :P

(Thread moved from Random to PPR for a fuller philosophical treatment)


Simulations of WHAT?

If there is no reality then what are they simulating?


How can you know for sure that this is not the 25th century and you are just a brain in a jar with various inputs connected to your brain simulating your existence here in the 21st century? While such a scenario seems highly unlikely how would you know the difference anyway?



Lord_Gareth
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07 Aug 2012, 2:31 pm

Wasn't it decided, like, ages ago that Plato's Cave was an inherently unprovable concept?


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Maje
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07 Aug 2012, 3:05 pm

exactly... thats why I could go mad, not being sure of anything because only me alone is perceiving what I see (me = god). I solve it by enjoying what I see even if I could be misunderstanding the whole thing, and still picking up on the thoughts my restricted mind preceives as worth thinking about any given moment.



ruveyn
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07 Aug 2012, 3:25 pm

schizoid26 wrote:
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solipsism#section_1

[i]

Interesting philosophic@l arguments

How does one know if anyone else exists?

.


One doesn't know for sure. Solopsism is logically consistent.

Also one does not know that whether the universe and we in it were created this morning complete with our memories.


We also do not know if other people (assuming they exist) have independent minds or are just organic robots.

ruveyn