Simon Belmont wrote:Perhaps it is tautology, but do you see how we get to the infinite regression by asking these questions? Example:
How do I know I am thinking?
I am thinking about thinking, therefore I know I am thinking
But how do I know that I am thinking about thinking?
I am thinking about thinking about thinking...
Well, if it truly is a tautology, then I don't think it could also be an infinite regress at the same time... And I honestly don't see where any kind of infinite regress comes into play here.
You experience a thought (or thoughts) = you are thinking.
Done. As far as I can see...
My point here is how you define existence. If you define it as self-awareness only then sure, I am certain that I exist. And if it helps us move forward in the conversation, then we can use that definition of existence.
Given the example we were talking about, yeah - I do think self-awareness = certain I exist.
But cool - whether you truly buy that or not, if that could be considered a commonly accepted 'axiom' for now, I think that could well help in seeing how much further the idea could develop...
It is hard to fathom exactly how much we do not know. I could compare us to grains of sand on the beach of the universe, but that isn't small enough. I could compare us to quarks in the universe, but that isn't small enough either. In an infinite universe like many scientists believe we are a part of, there is no measurement to how small and naïve we really are.
I actually agree with you on this. I don't know of any way to make any kind of accurate assessment measuring what we know against what we don't know,
And even if we could, I'd bet on the ratio being thouroughly disappointing... ;)
That's part of it. It's definitely not the sole reason.
Well, ok. I'd be interested in knowing what your thinking is here.
Maybe you already went through all this in another thread - but I must have only skimmed that one...
but I think it's pretty arrogant to assume that human science has advanced to a point where we know these things don't exist.
Well, I would word it as 'We have no good reason to beleive they exist.' And since - as far as I'm concerned - that's the best you can do for any given proposal, that's good enough for me in practical terms. i.e. how I choose to live my life etc.
1) our definition of existence, and 2) our definition of "serious thinker" :)
Well yeah - fair enough :)
Hey - for the time being, see if you can find
anybody - from serious thinker to bat-**** crazy - using any definition of 'existence' they want to try and get away with.
See what kind of quotes you can find - from anybody you like. I'm actually sure you could find 'some', but it will be interested to see how many...