Guybrush

Come on guys, it is a valid philosophical question even if most of us feel it's a silly one. Be nice.

This puzzled me a bit. What do you mean? Could you elaborate on this statement?

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VeggieLover

When i think about how little humans have actually managed to "prove" in comparison to how much is acutally (or potentially) out there, it is possible to feel very very small and insignificant both as an individual and as a species. On the other hand, every once in a while a human comes along that has managed to tap into the vast bank of knowledge (or energy or capability, whatever you want to call it) and completely baffels everyones expectations and challenges everything we "know" about the human mind. Yet even these individuals are only using some ridiculously small portion of the brain. When we think of all that brain power thats going unused, we realize the full potential of humanity and can feel very very big.

that help?

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"Not remotely! Because iocaine comes from Australia, as everyone knows. And Australia is entirely peopled with criminals. And criminals are used to having people not trust them as you are not trusted by me, so I can clearly not choose the wine in front of you."

Freebase Dali

Let's see your evidence that we only use a ridiculously small percentage of our brain... and I'm NOT talking about the percentage we use SIMULTANEOUSLY.
I'm scared that you're about to make the 10 percent mistake. Please don't.

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Freebase Dali

Veggie... if you believe in anything at all, then you believe that you exist.
If you think reality isn't valid, then you aren't either. In which case, what you just said doesn't apply in this conversation. So go on not existing elsewhere.

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VeggieLover

i dont believe the topic brought up was "do i really exist" or "do you really exist", I believe the thread is called "do we really exist" unless I am mistaken, WE refers to a group of people, ie. PLURAL. Just because I exist doesn't mean you exist. If you do not exist, there cannot therefore be a WE.
Also, the original post refered to the fact that everything the observer (ie. me) knows is based on signals recieved by the brain, thereby refering to the philisophical theory known as Solipsism which suggests that anything outside of the mind is unjustified. I believe that my comments were therefore, not only more on topic than anyone elses, but also a lot more helpful to the original poster.

I do actually know what I'm talking about.

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"Not remotely! Because iocaine comes from Australia, as everyone knows. And Australia is entirely peopled with criminals. And criminals are used to having people not trust them as you are not trusted by me, so I can clearly not choose the wine in front of you."

Freebase Dali

Let's first determine the definition of the word "we"...
Without going into detail, and if you're speaking in a general sense, WE can assume you mean everyone INCLUDING yourself. (That is, after all, the standard usage of the term.)

And if you refer to Solipsism that states everything outside the individual mind is unjustified, then to me, you're unjustified, and vice-versa. SO... Naturally, with everyone having that perspective, no one would exist.
But fortunately, not everyone has that perspective except a relatively few um... "people" who have nothing to do with their time and are logically challenged.

So I guess, by your argument, that your point is moot. Especially since I think it is and you don't exist, according to Solipsism.

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Dr.Seussicide

I think Carneades, from the branch of academic skepticism said it best:

"Nothing can be known, not even this."

A bit of a dim, dogmatic proposition, but I find it to be nonetheless refreshing.

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boo boo

Yeah the whole "we only use a small portion of our brain" thing is just a myth, I guess it was created to promote pseudoscience bullsh*t, you know, like if you managed to use 100% of your brain you can use telekinesis, telepathy and sh*t like that.

*Waits for Darkest Hour to call me closedminded.*

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http://www.last.fm/user/kingboobs

Guybrush

Yes, the brain thing is a myth. Different parts of the brain do different jobs. Your speech center is not going to be operating at 100% if you're not in some kind of extreme language/understanding challenge. The same goes for the rest of parts of your brain. This somehow gave rise to a stupid myth that says we only ever use a small part of our brains which is frankly ridiculous. We wouldn't have that much brain if we didn't use it.

I see the pursuit of solipsism as one that is highly unlikely to bear any fruit. All it can do is make you doubt things that you likely benefit more from believing or even taking for granted, such as yourself, the banana you ate last tuesday or all the stuff you learned in science class today. Because it can't be proven or disproven, I doubt there's much wisdom to tap into there. As I wrote earlier, you may feel some existential dread I guess.

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Guybrush

VeggieLover is right, it is the philosophy section and it should be possible to have discussions and disagreements without throwing words like "idiot" around. Anymore of that and I'll start handing out infractions.

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