Adam Sobel Week 7 - Am I Me?

    Rene Descartes once said, "I think, therefore I am", but how do we know if that's true? Most people would agree with the fact that "we are" (as in we exist materially), but how can we be sure?

    A very complicated concept is the idea that we don't even exist. What if we are dreaming or in some simulation like The Matrix? What if we are artificial intelligence and didn't know it? Or what if we aren't even human and are just a butterfly dreaming about being a human? You may think "that's just ridiculous", but can you 100% prove I'm wrong?  While it might seem unlikely, it isn't possible to prove that it isn't true.

    In reality, we can never truly be sure if we actually exist or if what around us actually exists. For one, everything that we understand about the worlds input from our sensations that our brain then interprets into perceptions, but how do we know if our sensations and perceptions are accurate? There is no way to prove that what we see, hear, touch, taste, and feel is accurate because we have nothing to compare it to. If we were to ask another person if they see something as red, then our ears would be sensing what they would respond. If both our sight and hearing didn't work right, then we wouldn't know that the person we were talking to might actually be saying "no, that isn't red" and we may hear "yes, it is red". All of our input is through sensations, but we can't test their accuracy. We simply have to trust that they work and hope that what we sense is real and our world and surroundings are real.

    If you were to assume that we did exist and that what was occurring around us was real, how would we know if anything in the past was real? We have no proof that any of our memories are real or that any of our early history actually happened. This is commonly referred to as Last Thursdayism, the idea that the universe was created last Thursday with us placed in it as if we had lived our whole lives in that universe since the day we were born, even though we were just created. This would also explain why sometimes our memories of events differ, because the events never really happened, they were just created in our minds as memories.

    While all of this sounds confusing and possibly even scary, what would be considered the "right" answer by philosophers? Would they agree with Last Thursdayism, would they say that we can't even trust our sensations and ourselves, or would they just say we don't even exist? Most say, and what I also agree with, is that we should just assume that everything we know is real. We should do this simply because it is easier. If we were to spend our whole lives trying to figure out extreme hypotheticals, we would likely go insane. While many of these concepts might be true, they probably aren't and if they are it wouldn't really hurt us. So, while it could be fun to theorize and consider what might be possible, it is just easier to just accept that they are only theories, not reality.

    What do you think? Do you agree with any of these philosophies, or do you just want to assume that what you know (or, more accurately, what you think you know) is real?

Vsauce video that explains it in more detail