My position, and the position of most idealistic transcendentalists, is that we infer, from the fact of being conscious, that we exist - we have self-consciousness. In order to avoid an infinite regression, we postulate that Consciousness itself is the Ultimate Reality, because without conscious awareness, you would be nothing. ---In [email protected], <[email protected]> wrote :
1. Everyone agrees they exist. Obviously without consciousness, you would not exist as a person. 2. Your turn . . . . There is only one consciousness; the material world is a false projection or superimposition upon pure consciousness, which is the only Real. I'm fairly sure no one here agrees with Descartes. It has been established that there are at least two, if not three, materialists posting to this list. Apparently they don't accept all the valid means of knowledge. Apparently they don't accept inference. Go figure.. But, hmmmmm. I am fairly sure that there'd be a great disagreement about what actually is a thought, so we'd have to have that sussed out firstly before we put Descartes before us horses....heh. Thoughts and ideas, not being material objects, cannot be perceived; they can only be inferred or in some cases, intuited. Thoughts are not objects of knowledge. In fact, thoughts are transcendental, beyond the physical senses. Even if it is argued that we are but constructs in an immense cosmic computer, still, that is a form of existence, but the term "alive" now becomes debatable. Hmmmmm. In order to experience consciousness there must be sentience, the ability to think, feel, see, hear, smell, or taste. By the way: Is a ghost alive? Non sequitur. I agree that I exist as an non-entity -- a semantic designation, but it's about as ephemeral as I can get with words.
