Wayne Eddy wrote:
> From: "Olin Elliott" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>> The "I" that perceives is not anything -- its an illusion, a trick of
>> perception and >memory. It doesn't exist -- there is not fixed self.
>> Buddha knews that 2500 years ago, ?>and modern science is showing him
>> right.
> Surely the "I" that perceives is something. Just because it can't exist
> outside a brain, doesn't mean it isn't real.
>
> If matter couldn't exist outside this universe, would that mean that matter
> is an illusion?
>
> Software can't run outside a computer, does that mean it's not real?
>
> What exactly does real mean?
My mind is real, in the same way that a language is real, or a computer
program, and in the same way that Islam, Christianity and Buddhism are
real. Abstract, but real, because it is meaningful to reason about as
real, and because it has real consequences.
There exists such a thing as "mathematics". It is an abstract construct,
a concept, and it only exists in our minds, but if one person says it
does not exist, and the next person goes on to use that which does not
exist to predict astronomical events, what is then the meaning of "exist"?
That which exists is real, right?
/c
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