RE: Can we ever know truth? - simulation

[Nick Prince]

This is a form of solipsism  - it is difficult to attack it and defending it can be similarly time consuming.  I think we have to move on and believe there is a better approach – if only to get somewhere other than back to the beginning every time.     ----- Original Message ----- From: Norman Samish To: everything-list@googlegroups.com Sent: Wednesday, August 09, 2006 12:53 PM Subject: Can we ever know truth?   In a discussion about philosophy, Nick Prince said, "If we are living in a simulation. . ."   To which John Mikes replied, "I think this is the usual pretension. . .   I think 'we simulate what we are living in' according to the little we know.  Such 'simulation' - 'simplification' - 'modeling' - 'metaphorizing' - or even 'Harry Potterizing' things we think does not change the 'unknown/unknowable' we live in.  We just think and therefore we think we are."   This interchange reminded me of thoughts I had as a child - I used to wonder if if everything I experienced was real or a dream.  How could I know which it was?  I asked my parents and was discouraged, in no uncertain terms, from asking them nonsensical questions.  I asked my playmates and friends, but they didn't know the answer any more than I did.  I had no other resources so I concluded that the question was unanswerable and that the best I could do was proceed as if what I experienced was reality.    Now, many years later, I have this list - and Wikipedia - as resources.  But, as John Mikes (and others) say, I still cannot know that what I experience is reality.  I can only assume that reality is how things appear to me - and I might be wrong.   Norman Samish   No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.1.405 / Virus Database: 268.10.8/415 - Release Date: 08/09/06 --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To post to this group, send email to everything-list@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---