How do I know I Exist?

[midnight fantasy]

Hey I had TOK and well in a good presentation you will sum up the evidence that you can prove you do exist vs the evidence that you can't prove you exist and reach the conclusion you can't prove you exist.


However here are SOME ideas:

you can only prove you exist when someone else can prove you exist (the question there is how do they prove it.)

I think therefore I am (but how do I know these are my thoughts? How do I know I am actually thinking?)

You may infact reach the conclusion you DO exist and well your teacher should accept that as long as it is backed up properly!

 

[YesIPlayTheBagpipes]

try telling that to the credit card companies...

 

[captaincabbage]

You think, therefor you are. Most fitting for this: If you didn't exist, how could you pose that question?

yup, that's pretty much it.

If this doesn't answer your question OP, get someone to punch you in the back of the head. If it hurt like all hell then I'd say that's pretty fuckin' decisive proof that you exist.

 

[Sir Thomas Sean Connery]

This may blow your mind, but in truth, WE ARE ALL SWEET POTATOES!!!

I know, right?

I think, therefore I'm a yam.

 

[Sethzard]

Well, one way that you could put it is that you could say that in actual fact you are a construct of someone else (Chuck Norris maybe) and although you think, you aren't independent therefore you don't exist in a way.

 

[The .50 Caliber Cow]

Clearly the only option is to not show up for the presentation, since you don't exist to give it, seems reasonable to me!

Spoiler: You sir are

So what he said. If you know you don't exist, you are under no obligations to do anything.

 

[Laser Priest]

If I didn't, I wouldn't care.

A more apathetic take on "I think, therefore I am," I'd say.

 

[pope_of_larry]

i couldn't find the real quote so t.v troops has to work for this. In The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, the titular guide proves that there is no life in the universe by first informing us that the universe is of infinite size, and that there is a finite number of inhabited worlds in the universe. Since any finite number divided by infinity is so small "as makes no odds", then clearly any life in the galaxy must be the product of a deranged mind.

 

[Gottesstrafe]

This smells of a university student with a Philosophy paper due the next morning and a blank Word document. Crack open your text book and search the Table of Contents, it'd probably do you more good than it will at its current post as a $60 doorstop.

 

[senorfatso]

Use Hume's bundle theory. Projections of properties of objects (including our own consciousness) are all that we know of, the actual self is unknowable. Take that Descartes.

 

[Kair]

Existential questions are troll material.

You are because you know you are and think you are, that is you and that is all you are.

 

[qeinar]

You think, therefor you are. Most fitting for this: If you didn't exist, how could you pose that question?

pretty much this. ^^

 

[cyxz]

You exist because others percieve your existence , you are a social being that exists because he can be seen heard touched etc. by other people ,if you were alone , and no one else existed you could not prove that you exist , if you can use one of your senses to comprehend the existence of something that means the object/person is real (and don't give me the air example , air exists but we can't see smell touch taste or hear it , it's existence is sustained by the fact that we are alive , and it can be chemically analized ) , you can't aknowledge the existence of something that is not real and palpable , scientifically speaking of course , no "God" flaming please .

 

[Cry Wolf]

Ask yourself this question, and then answer.

I have to deliver a presentation that has me "prove that I DON'T know I exist" and can simply not figure out how to go about doing this. Its pretty damn hard to prove you don't know something like that!
Wonder if anyone here knows about TOK...

You're trying to prove to others that you do not exist, rather than yourself, regardless of the actual assignment question. Descartes' much recited phrase 'Cogito Ergo Sum' only proves to the thinker that he exists. His problem is discerning whether everything external exists, as the senses are fallible - ala The Matrix.

Thus, you argue with the class. How do they know you exist? How can they trust their senses? How do they know you think? This path will require you to be quick witted and well versed in the musings of a plethora of famous philosophers.

The other option has been stated before. Don't turn up, and have a friend simple ask "Who?" when the roll is called. However, this really depends on your philosophy teacher as I've known those who'd fail you for such an action, or given you top marks.

 

[lizabeth19]

I'm sorry if this is insulting your intelligence, but you have heard of Rene Descartes, right?

Yeah, great stuff, and that is the problem. Thats a solid idea Descartes had! and I have to PROVE that I DON'T know I exist for the presentation. How the fuck?

You're a figment of someone else's imagination or story, and every single action you take, down to your breath, is predetermined b that other person?

 

[TheXRatedDodo]

I'm in grade 9 (young, I know) And yikes, will we really be learning this kind of thing? It seems to me more like an infinite loop of questions that get you nowhere. The more you find out, the more questions you have, thus the more things you need to find out.

In the end, the only thing you learn is that you are even more ignorant then you thought you were.

Pretty much. Knowledge drove me pretty insane to the point where I found myself in an infinite loop of self-analysis to the point where I was so depressed I was fundamentally dead inside.

They say knowledge is a burden. They were right.

The last few years I have spent basically re-programming myself into a slightly more blissfully ignorant state.
I am of the belief that while maybe one day we may find "all the answers" (if such a thing exists, which I don't particularly believe does,) it's probably best to not know them.

 

[Ledan]

IB?
Well.... you can't prove that you don't exist. Cogito Ergo sum, as descartes said. If you are thinking about whether or not you are thinking, you must bet thinking. Therefore you can't doubt that you are thinking. If you are thinking, you are doing something, therefore you exist.

Edit: oh! Just read the reply a bit above. Yeah i would agree with that, you don't have to prove to yourself that you don't exist, you just have to prove to your class that you don't exist.
While not showing up is funny, it won't give you a chance to disprove yourself. Argue about their sense of sight and hearing, and DONT LET THEM TOUCH YOU. Since this touch is apparently how you reality-test things.

 

[dj_8612]

If you have the capacity to doubt your own existence then that is proof that you are self aware and therefore must exist. However this hyperbolic doubt does become circular because as soon as you convince yourself that you do exist then you can immediately claim that you are no longer totally self aware because you believe something with certainty.

Philosophy degree answer

 

[Ganthrinor]

I think that I think, therefore I think that I am. I think.

 

[SL33TBL1ND]

Ask yourself this question, and then answer.

I have to deliver a presentation that has me "prove that I DON'T know I exist" and can simply not figure out how to go about doing this. Its pretty damn hard to prove you don't know something like that!
Wonder if anyone here knows about TOK...

I see you do the IB. Anyway, the answer is, when they ask you to prove that you don't know if you exist, you just say "Who?"