The new book by Stefan Molyneux - "Essential Philosophy" - is now available - for free!
Watch the video at https://youtu.be/6eGGGwrXKUI
Listen to the audiobook at: https://soundcloud.com/stefan-molyneux/essential-philosophy
Visit www.fdrurl.com/EP for the Kindle version - please share the book and the ideas!
Everything you do is philosophical.
You wake in the morning, groan, stretch and open your eyes. What is happening?
Everything that is happening is philosophical.
How do you know you are awake? How do you know it is morning? How do you know your eyes are open? How do you know your dreaming has ended and your day has begun?
How do you know your memories of yesterday – or ten years ago – are valid? How do you even know you are the same person as the one who got into bed last night?
It gets even crazier, when you really think about it.
How do you know that your “experience” is not in fact some elaborate simulation? Do you know for certain that you are not a brain in a tank, wired up to some Matrix-style virtual reality?
Look at your hand right now. You see a hand, sure, but how do you know that the hand truly exists outside of your mind? Sure, you see your hand, but the image only shows up in your mind. It’s the same with your sensations of your hand – they also only show up in your mind. Where is the hand itself?
Last night, in your dreams, you also had hands – or claws, or tentacles, or heaven knows what –that did not exist or move in what you call the “real world.” In your dreams, you visited a floating island full of dragons that does not exist outside your dreamscape – or does it? Perhaps your dreams are the real world, and your “waking” life is the dream. How can you know for certain?
Perhaps the people you live with are mere avatars – artificial intelligence simulations of human beings. Perhaps they were all real people at some point, but have been replaced by space aliens with perfect biological robots. When you went to a movie last night, pe..
