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Are You Real? Am I? How Would Any Of Us Truly Know?
We need to understand what it is we experience in order to better guide our path through our life.
If a tree falls in the forest and you’re not there to see it, does it make any noise? More than that, if you’re not there to see it did the tree even fall and does it even exist? That, in a nutshell, is the question posed by Solipsism and some theories of Quantum Mechanics.
Buckle up because this short journey is promising to be a bumpy ride. The beginning of the journey however starts with Rene Descartes in the 17th Century. Descartes, is famous for having given us the Latin phrase: Cogito, ergo sum which is translated into English as “I think, therefore I am”. This was Descartes attempt to introduce methodic doubt into the philosophy of his time. In doing so however he opened the door wide for solipsism to enter.
Solipsism is a logic-statement based form of skepticism that is entirely plausible and completely irrefutable. It also has the ability to drive you complete bonkers. Let me explain as simply as I can by stating that right now I have no way of knowing whether I am the only conscious being in the universe. Before you scoff and call me big-headed and delusional consider the means I have at my disposal that help me arrive at the notion…
