I sleep in a hammock, so there's not really anything under my bed. Maybe a few items of clothing.Sstavix wrote:Maybe there are monsters under your bed. When was the last time you cleaned it out under there? I've seen some dust bunnies that can bite your arm clean off!
It's the real world. I'll take your fake money if you think you don't need it though...Sstavix wrote:Ah, but is this the real world? Or merely an illusion? A prison for your mind, as it were....
See, I don't think that's true either. You can be certain of many things. You need air to breath, the sun will come up tomorrow, hitting your hand on a stone will hurt it, ETC. None of these things are only for me, or for you. I think to believe the "concept of self is the only sure thing" is to deny a very large part of reality (you know, philosophy). Reality is also not self centered; to say that is to call God wrong. He tends to point out that reality is centered around Him. And be honest; You can't live around other people without seeing the world as they do. Everything you are started off with your parents as a child. The showed you the world, they told you about the world. At no point did you magically transform into another person. Your experiences only modified those first solid truths you learned, and maybe changed how you thought of them. No one is entirely alone in their existence because only they see the world as they do.Sstavix wrote:Two things came to me while reading this....
1) The concept of "self" is pretty much the only thing we can be certain of. We cannot experience the world from someone else's senses, memories and experiences. Others can certainly try to show things from their perspective, but we still end up filtering their writings (or recordings or what have you) through our own mental filters. So in one respect, reality is extremely self-centered, simply because we have no other "selves" to experience it with.
2) I find it amusing that you are dismissive about existentialism. To be honest, most of philosophy likely consists of pulling stuff out of your backsides. So we can discuss the veracity or usefulness of existentialism until the cows come home. But let's return to the question that started this whole philosophical discussion in the first place - is it real? Existentialism is a part of our reality - we can talk about it, obviously, so therefore it must exist! But is it true? And if not, does that mean that reality can be partially comprised of outright falsehoods?
That existentialism exists is without question. That it's true or viable is the question. OK. But can reality be comprised of outright falsehoods? No. Because that statement assumes reality is a personal thing, and not...reality. If I believed existentialism it would mean I was denying reality, it would mean how I saw the world was different, but it wouldn't go beans towards changing reality. Just like firmly believing the world revolves around me will not magically make people bow down before me.