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techstepgenr8tion
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10 Aug 2008, 7:24 pm

:?

Well... I'd be careful on taking any decisive action on that. I'd hate to see you on the news 8O .



techstepgenr8tion
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10 Aug 2008, 7:25 pm

Ballistic, one question to you though. How old is your earth?



twoshots
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10 Aug 2008, 8:06 pm

I think AG QED'd this topic as far as I'm concerned, so let's make it more fun: prove reality doesn't exist.

Alright, here's the idea: "reality" is a category in which we put those propositions which characterize our senses. Now, our senses may or may not "exist", but this isn't the point: reality is just the category we use to refer to all things. The question of whether or not reality exists then is: does this category, this set to which all things belong, "exist"? Which of course it doesn't, because categories are just linguistic constructs and have no "existence".

Moreover, I direct you to a fact of most set theories: universal sets can't exist, they're inherently paradoxical! Thus, there can be no set of "reality" which contains all other sets (including, of course, itself), and therefore the notion of "reality" is inherently contradictory! Reality can't exist! WHAT NOW?


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10 Aug 2008, 8:13 pm

twoshots wrote:
Moreover, I direct you to a fact of most set theories: universal sets can't exist, they're inherently paradoxical! Thus, there can be no set of "reality" which contains all other sets (including, of course, itself), and therefore the notion of "reality" is inherently contradictory! Reality can't exist! WHAT NOW?


Well, in that case, we burn all of Godel's works and ignore the fact he ever existed.



Orwell
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10 Aug 2008, 8:27 pm

Nothing can ever really be proven with certainty except in mathematics. And even then, you need some axioms and postulates to start from.


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10 Aug 2008, 9:38 pm

techstepgenr8tion wrote:
:?

Well... I'd be careful on taking any decisive action on that. I'd hate to see you on the news 8O .


Assuming the post was directed at mine...

What exactly is it you think I should be careful of?

Why would you hate to see me on the news and why would I be on the news in the first place?


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10 Aug 2008, 9:50 pm

In proving reality, people often quote Descartes. However he was wrong. The Devil's Dictionary provides the only truth that can be concluded when proving reality by using the self: "Cogito cogito ergo cogito sum. Translation: I think I think, therefore, I think I am." Or (possibly) simpler, 'I believe that I think, therefore I think that I am.


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10 Aug 2008, 9:56 pm

Barracuda wrote:
In proving reality, people often quote Descartes. However he was wrong. The Devil's Dictionary provides the only truth that can be concluded when proving reality by using the self: "Cogito cogito ergo cogito sum. Translation: I think I think, therefore, I think I am." Or (possibly) simpler, 'I believe that I think, therefore I think that I am.

Well, the issue is how can you think you think without thinking. Not only that, but couldn't believing something be a subset of thinking for both are cognitive processes? The reason why cogito ergo sum is correct, is simply because of the word "I", if you substituted any verb such as "believe" or anything else, the idea is just as valid because you cannot act in any form or fashion without existing. Thinking is simply an action that cannot be denied as it is not dependent upon external realities.



Bradleigh
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10 Aug 2008, 10:47 pm

The thing is that thoughts are built on the reality of observing reality, and therefore if you tried to prove something if what you are proving will be proved by itself, wich does not work. You would need to at least know for certain that something existed.


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Awesomelyglorious
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10 Aug 2008, 10:50 pm

Bradleigh wrote:
The thing is that thoughts are built on the reality of observing reality, and therefore if you tried to prove something if what you are proving will be proved by itself, wich does not work. You would need to at least know for certain that something existed.

Well, thoughts are built upon the workings of the mental faculties, whether or not reality exists beyond those thoughts is immaterial. Can a person deny that they are thinking? No, to even object requires thought, and therefore cogito ergo sum is usually considered pretty solid foundationally.



Bradleigh
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10 Aug 2008, 10:59 pm

Well your thoughts are mostly based on observations of reality, maybe they could actualy be placed out side of it. Your thoughts may exist, but are they even part of reality. It could be that existance is actualy built on thought, not on reality.


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Awesomelyglorious
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10 Aug 2008, 11:03 pm

Bradleigh wrote:
Well your thoughts are mostly based on observations of reality, maybe they could actualy be placed out side of it. Your thoughts may exist, but are they even part of reality. It could be that existance is actualy built on thought, not on reality.


Reality 3. The totality of all things possessing actuality, existence, or essence

---------------------------------------------------------
Excerpted from American Heritage Talking Dictionary
Copyright © 1997 The Learning Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

My thoughts possess actuality because they cannot not exist and still be described as being actual, they must exist too because we would not address them if they did not exist, and there is certainly an essence to them as they have intrinsic properties(which is why they are given the category of thought rather than left undefined).

This means that thoughts are within reality and thus a part of reality.



iamnotaparakeet
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10 Aug 2008, 11:08 pm

If there is no reality, there are no absolutes, there is no God, then there are no rules and nothing matters because nothing is real. Go ahead everybody, live like morons!



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10 Aug 2008, 11:12 pm

How do you know that you are not see things differently to others, what is stoping what one person sees as green being someone elses purple. Then again how do you know that you are not just imagining things, have you seen the movie 'Vanila sky"? your reality may just be a biproduct of a halucination caused within the points of the mind, like one big dream.


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10 Aug 2008, 11:15 pm

iamnotaparakeet wrote:
If there is no reality, there are no absolutes, there is no God, then there are no rules and nothing matters because nothing is real. Go ahead everybody, live like morons!

well, we all live like morons, or maybe we all are morons, wether there is a reality or not. ;)


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iamnotaparakeet
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11 Aug 2008, 12:29 am

Bradleigh wrote:
How do you know that you are not see things differently to others, what is stoping what one person sees as green being someone elses purple. Then again how do you know that you are not just imagining things, have you seen the movie 'Vanila sky"? your reality may just be a biproduct of a halucination caused within the points of the mind, like one big dream.


Perception is irrelevant as the chemistry and physics underlying this corporeal universe governs the phenomena we observe. Some people may be handicapped and not fully capable of experiencing things the way others do, but they may dwell on other aspects of the same phenomena.