Philosophy Now Forum

Not so. Perceptions can never logically vouch for themselves. One perception cannot vouch for the realness of another perception. One dream cannot vouch for the realness of another dream. One hallucination cannot vouch for the realness of another hallucination. Of course they can, when they all alw...

TimeKeeper wrote:Use “simple logic” to tell me if B is the same as В ?

Sorry, I don't understand what you are getting at. What is the relevance of this to "reality"? Aren't both of these B's just perceptions themselves?

Those perceptions are probably true/real, which all add up, together. They create a consistent, verifiable worldview. And my worldview also explains the "source" of mental impressions. Not so. Perceptions can never logically vouch for themselves. One perception cannot vouch for the realne...

Everything I know about the world verifies that it's a real conversation; everything adds up so far. But everything that you know about the world comes from your perceptions. How do you know which perceptions are true/real? Which perceptions are telling you the truth? Which can you trust? The probl...

That's too vague, what are you actually asking? Are you hallucinating our conversation now?, ...or is this conversation really/actually happening? ...how do you know? ...if you are hallucinating, then would you know you are hallucinating? ...do delusional people believe they are seeing real things?...

TimeSeeker wrote:And so I reply to my own post instead to make a point. And will continue ignoring RG1 from now onwards until defeat is conceded

Sorry TimeSeeker, that was a dirty trick on my part. Feel free to send me a slap icon.

Henry Quirk wrote:if it is all in my head, if all of 'you' are in my head, then you all best hope I live a loooong time.

good one

OK. lets go with that assumption. It's testable. Go ahead and make an absolute claim. By giving you counter-examples to your "absolute" claim - I will demonstrate it to be probabilistic. Okay, it's a deal, here goes --- I claim (with absolute certainty!) that you will respond to this post...

That's another distinction without a difference. No, that's another 'experience'. Suppose that I don't trust the contents of my perception. It's all a video game. And then what happens? Then you've gained a bit more knowledge about reality. Now, I re-state my AXIOM: Certainty is probabilistic. If y...

Yes. It's a contradiction. And? Did somebody lie to you that contradictions don't exist even though the evidence is right in front of you that they do ;) You contradict yourself, I contradict myself. And nothing happens... So the 'law' of non-contradiction is.... a lie ? Huh? Where did I say contra...

TimeSeeker wrote:Suppose that reality is not real.
Lets go further and suppose that reality is in fact fake!
It is an illusion and it does not exist.
It is all in your head!

And then what happens?

...then you don't trust the content of your perceptions as necessarily real.

Certainty is probabilistic. Are you certain of this? *yawn* do you want to play the infinite regress game? Sorry, there's no "infinite regress" here, but only "self-contradiction". Your statement defeats the very legitimacy (certainty) of your own statement. *yawn yawn* :roll:

I 'know' cuz -- as I say -- I'm too dumb to be imagining all of this, so it must be real, must exist outside of me, must exist independent of me. Looks can be deceiving :D . "Must exist" is not a very compelling reason. PS. I doubt you are dumb. The mere fact of knowing that you don't kno...

TimeSeeker wrote:Certainty is probabilistic.

Are you certain of this?

Henry Quirk wrote:I say the odds my perceptions of reality are accurate (that I perceive the world 'as it is') are close to 100%. I say 'close to' cuz I guess there's some small chance (less than one percent) that I'm wrong and reality 'is' a product of my imagination.

How could you know one way or the other?