I was talking to my friend about existence and he brought up an interesting point: Cogito Ergo Sum (I think therefore I am) could be an acceptable philosophy if thinking were a property of existence. It is an interesting argument that I had not considered before. Even though it is interesting I still believe it is incorrect and use reason to refute it.
We were discussing a special form of existence since it applies to entities and does not apply to things that are not self aware. Entities are not necessarily confined to being human, but could include animals and higher beings. Generally it does not include things like rocks or water.
- My friend argued that for something to exist as an entity, it must be able to think. Since he was self-aware that he can think, it stands to reason that he exists.
- My argument was that we only believe that we are thinking. Our thoughts may only be a projection of a higher power or being.
- My friend then argued that if your thoughts are projections of the higher being, it would stand to reason that you are the higher being and exist as a human in a limited capacity yourself.
- I then argued that being a projection of a higher being does not mean you exist. I could tell a computer to solve a mathematical problem for me, but the computer would still not exist as a self-aware entity. The computer just thinks that it can do math on its own. I also believe that I cannot consider a “higher being” version of myself to actually be me, since the division of consciousness would make us different entities, but I’ll leave that explanation for another discussion.
At this point we both agreed to disagree just not in so many words. And I think we began talking about quantum mechanics, cat murder mysteries and trees falling on distant planets (more discussions for another time). What do you think about existence? Can we prove our own existence or is it pointless to try?
Post Scriptum: Me and my friend do not actually talk like this, I’m just trying to avoid problems with semantics by saying ‘entities’ and ‘higher beings.’
