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Help answer this question below.
I bag, therefore I am.
Not that I exist, but that someone from this account IS reading your questions..
Nope. Not convincingly.
I could never prove that I am not a manifestation of your imagination.
I owe the IRS. Is that proof enough? (Just joking!)
=)
If you don't want to believe then probably not. Because it is not possible to prove something to a person who does not want to believe it.
If you want to believe then yes.
If I could get in the same room with you and punched you in the nose, you would definitely know of my existence. Nothing makes something more real that physical contact. It is why people always say "pinch me" when they are unsure they are dreaming.
I type, therefore I am as real as you are.
Since I am a figment of my own imagination, it would be rather difficult for me to prove my own existence to you.
If I didn't exist I coulnd't be typing this could I?
Existences needs no prove :)
It only IS...just like illumination; the moment you stop asking yourself questions about it; stop looking for it; stop waiting for it or trying to achieve it; inexplicably it comes. When you least expect it. For a reason you can never know. One moment you are striving, figuring, imagining, and then, in the blink of an eye, it all disappears.
Then everything -all the struggle, all the striving, all the thinking, all the figuring, all the surrendering, all the letting go, all the grabbing hold of, all the praying, all the begging, all the cursing, too- was just a distraction. And only then is it seen that the person was, is , and ever will be no more than a thought.
While the world is trying to solve its problems and everyone around you is engaged in the same thing, you're not. While everybody around you is trying to figure it out, trying to arrive, trying to "get there", trying to be worthy, you're not. While everyone thinks awakening is a grand, noble, halo-enshrouded thing, for you it's not. Where everybody is so sure that happiness will come when something is different, you know that it won't. Where everybody else is looking to the next book, to the next teacher, to the next guru to be told what's real, to be given the secret key to an awakened life, you're not. You don't have a key because there's not a lock to put it in.
We only ARE...We are ONE.
I attached a very insightful video about BEINGNESS, which is a synonym for TRUTH, LOVE, SILENCE, HARMONY, LIFE or HAPPINESS.
Huge hugs,
maramel
No, but I cannot prove you either that I don't exist.
;-)
I can prove that i exist but not that i am here in this exact moment.
I exist because i have thoughts, therefore i must be something.
however, the only thing that holds me here in this place at this moment, typing this to you, are my senses. Touch, See, Hear, Taste, Smell. BUT our senses are known to mislead us. We sometimes here our name in an empty hall, or see something that doesn't exist out of the corner of our eye. We can not prove that our senses are really fake, playing ticks on us all the time, and that where we think we our, who we think we are, and what we think we are could all be a lie.
Do any of us really exist? Or are we just on a mis-adventure through time and space bumping into each other every once in a while making contact. Maybe aliens visit this planet all the time but when they get here it's just a barren land?
Hmmmm... not quite sure about that myself :)
Well...
...I would begin by having you give me access to your checking, savings and credit card accounts.
No - I cannot. That's too much for me to undertake at this time - tough, tough question!
Do yah want me to come over and hit you real hard in the back of the head. Then you will know I exist! :o)*grin*
No, I can't even prove to myself that I exist. "I think, therefore I am" is a sham. It should be "I think, therefore I think."
Prove I don't.
In the words of René Décartes: "I doubt, therefore I think, therefore I am."
I type therefore I am.
But probably I cannot PROVE that I exist to you.
yes even if i am only one of your thoughts i would have to exist even if i was just one of your thoughts therefore you may have just created me
I post therefore I am.
If not you can imagine that I came from The Land of Wind and Ghosts.
Yes, I can.
No I cannot prove it :D
I could be a Turing Machine...
I (and the entirety of Answerbag) may be a figment of your imagination...
You may be the only being in existence and everything else, including all the other apparent "minds" you meet, is a fantasy...
So you are now condemned to a life time of Solipsism LOL ;)
Good question though :)
Sure, come visit anytime.
Rene Descarte: I fart therefore I am! Or something like that.
I'm just a figment of your imagination.
No one can prove anything 100%, because all of our knowledge is based induction. While deductive reasoning exists if you take the premises of a logical argument to be true, the only way to validate the truthfulness of a premise down to its smallest possible unit is to induce a conclusion at some stage of the argument.
Even using "Cogito ergo sum", or "I think therefore I am", an ultimate proof is unatainable. If you believe that you can prove your own existence to yourself by idea that you are able to contemplate your existence, then answer me this: How do you know this statement wasn't introduced into your thought process by an outside stimuli trying to convince you to believe that you exist?
A computer can be programmed to believe it is sentient and believe it can prove it sentience, but that does not mean it is truthfully sentient, nor can it actually prove that sentience.
So to answer your question in a round about way, No, I cannot prove to you, or anyone (myself included), that I exist.
Music is proof that you exist, I don't listen to stuff that often, so its hard to tell if its making noise. It would tell me if it existed.
No matter if "life" is real or if what is happening is just part of a messed up dream or whatever kind of philosophical b.s. u believe,this is fact: someone or something or idea that is not u exists. One cannot ask and answer their own question without knowing already what they are or aren't going to say.
If I can react to the things that you say or do and I can be seen by everyone around you who can see, then I pretty much exist.
You must be asking this question to SOMEONE out there...we might all be the same person, but with different personalities....so, I guess it can be whoever you want it to be. Just like I say this is right and you say it's wrong, I might be me but to you I'm not....
No. But I can prove it to myself.
Cogito Ergo Sum. +2
i can without a doubt do you want my cell number to speak with me directly ?
+5
I think therefore I am.
Come within swinging range of my baseball bat and I will give you difficult to refute evidence as often as it takes to convince you.
(moral relativism is similarly refuted)
All men a mortal
Ironkettle is mortal
Therefore Iornkettle is a man
If all boys are grown men
Ironkettle is a man
Then, Ironkettle was a boy
If all boys are born to mothers
Ironkettle has a mother
Therfore Ironkettle was born
If you are born you exist
Ironkettle was born
Ironkettle exists
"Nintendo"
If I was a figment of your imagination, would I really have just typed Nintendo?
Well, I could tweak yer nose!
;-)
I recall and speak my truth and my reality, which would not be understood as your own. If I were with you in person, I might be able to convince you that I exist; however, you might be able to convince me otherwise :)
As long as I know I'm alive and kicking...I'm happy!
How can we prove that we exist to another person when we cannot prove that we exist to ourselves?
By your reading this answer, we have just proved our mutual existence! Hallelujah!
Thank you for clearing that up...now I must rest, alas I grow weary
No - I am just a figment of your imagination!!!
No i can't. I'm just a ghost. I will haunt your house.
Philosophy carries out the quest for reality by means of thinking as inner action...A little philosophy leads away from reality, but complete philosophy leads back to it. Superficial philosophy...may fritter itself away in endless problems, in historical knowledge of school doctrines, in bright ideas, in see-sawing intellectual deliberations---and lose reality in the process. Complete philosophy, however, is master of these possibilities. It is essentially the concentration whereby man becomes himself by sharing in reality. And my proof is if you exist so do I? If i exist so does he and so forth.
i could but id need you infront of me beat you half to death you would feel real pain and the bringer of pain is just as real as day thatll show you whats what man what you thinking of course we all exist or eles who is interacting with your question maybe your on acid and your senses are messing with you oh and by the way im only 5 and i know this can i proof the fact that im 5 into existence no i can not.
yes by slapping you
My existence is self-evident. It does not require proof. It is obvious. It cannot be proved with formal logic but that does not mean I do not exist. It only proves that my existence cannot be proved using formal logic. Formal logic is but a method of trying to establish a truth by inferring it from a known, a given, an axiom, a probable assumption, an obviously self-evident "no-brainer".
The limitation of formal logic is the paradox that it requires a self-evident "given" to proceed from BUT in the strictest sense, NOTHING is really self-evident. Something is only HELD to be self-evident. e.g. "We hold these thruths to be self-evident.." Holding is not quite the same thing as being.
The problem with formal logic is that once you challenge the self-evidence of the premis the whole house of cards falls down. It doesn't matter if the premis was correct or incorrect, it is enough to introduce a reasonable doubt. Lawyers know this very well.
Formal logic does not allow for intuition, gut feel or common sense and that is it's weakness. Logic is useful but an over-reliance on logic is not wise. If we relied too much on logic we could become as silly as Mr. Spock in Star Trek who would protest when things were not logical..only to be proved wrong by the wisdom and resourceful of Capt. Kirk. Thank god we don't rely too much on formal logic in real life. If we did, we may just start doubting our own existence. That would be silly indeed.
Not until you prove to me that you exist. otherwise, I'm making my case to nobody.
Lets hear opinions on why death exists at all.
by C_Anglin on January 12th, 2011
| 7 people like this
If you define your own morality, then what compels you to be constant in what you currently deem to be "evil" (or "good")?
by PhileoTruth on December 8th, 2010
| 2 people like this
Is there really a thing called freedom or all we all trapped towards death?
by Kimi_T on February 4th, 2011
| 1 person likes this
What philosophy do you try to apply to your day to day life?
by Desiderata on November 16th, 2010
| 7 people like this
Does anyone appreciate the sound reasons for egoism that Max Stirner provides in his Ego and It's own?
by nest on November 25th, 2010
| 1 person likes this
You're reading Can you prove to me that you exist?
- which can also be phrased in the following ways:
Comments
I only comment, therefore I'm not.
by Stableboy on September 14th, 2007
Not a convincing argument.... :-)
by Highlander is semi-retired from AB on September 17th, 2007
I thought they were both pretty convincing. lol
by Wickels on March 15th, 2008
I can only prove to me that I exist.
Was this question asked in jest? We all only exist insomuch as we believe. Otherwise it is all for naught--to ourselves, and the other imaginary people we believe we share existence with.
Or I guess you could just be a squirrel trying to get a nut. ??
by door key on June 4th, 2009