Considering Existence

Yaye, greetings again everyone.

Today I wondered if I may please speak about existence as an initial foundation for a number of the ideas that I have explored.

This started when I attended a Philosophy Reading Group approximately four years ago, in which we were studying the meditations of Descartes. Within the first meditation, Descartes argues that it is very possible that nothing exists, or that individuals are being deceived into believing that what they experience is real. One popular example of this is the story within the movie, "The Matrix".

I believe that in the next meditation, Descartes stated a very famous observation. This is that at the very least, the thinker does exist in some form. That is, "Cogito ergo sum", or "I think, therefore I am". I do believe, however, that this does leave the possibility that all which is perceived by the thinker via the five senses in the physical world does not exist.

^^ The happy man who created the reading group informed us that this is a scary argument to be used within a discussion, as it negates all points that follow. I do very much agree with this in a number of ways. On the other hand, I believe that by considering this possibilty, useful conclusions may be made.

Let us create an individual named Ted (who is human) and assume Ted believes that what he perceives does exist physically (and also that other consciousnesses does exist). For instance, we could say the he is a human living in London. Now, let us next assume that all that he perceives is not real outside of his imagination. He is actually just a brain (a human brain) in a vat and is being fed this information by an evil demon who enjoys deception. That is, Ted is living in a virtual world where he is the only consciousness.

Now, Ted is also aware of the possibility that what he perceives may not exist outside of his imagination. So, should he conclude that this is the case? Please remember that Ted is just like you, the reader in that he believes that what he has experienced thus far, in the physical world is real, and so had no idea that he is a brain in a vat. What advantages would concluding, with no evidence, that all that he believes exists only in his imagination?

If he did conclude this, there would be no escape for him. He would just spend the rest of his life very unhappy I believe.

Also, if he concluded this, and the other possibility was true (that he was actually perceiving the physical world through his five senses and other consciousness were also perceiving this world with him), then concluding that he did not exist would perhaps be even more disadvantageous. This is because he would not believe that other consciousnesses exist with him and could cause suffering to them due to his disbeliefs.

For instance, let us assume that Ted ends a life. If this is not a real life, and Ted is in a vat, then this gives no advantage to Ted. However, if it is a real life, and Ted is "in" the physical world, then great damage has been done as well.

Therefore, now let us consider ourselves. I believe the best conclusion to make is that what we perceive does exist physically (unless proven otherwise somehow). And also, that other consciousnesses (I am sorry if this is not a word) exist in the usual way (by controlling organic bodies etc.).

Oh dear, I am very sorry as this is a very long section that I have written. I am also sorry if this is all very silly. In the next section, I shall use the above considerations of perception to create potential conclusions to how we may treat other life forms.

Thank you very much for reading.

Thomas