How do you know you're real? It's an obvious question until you try to answer it, but let's take it seriously. How do you really know you exist? In his "Meditations on First Philosophy," René Descartes tried to answer that very question, demolishing all his preconceived notions and opinions to begin again from the foundations. All his knowledge had come from his sensory perceptions of the world. Same as you, right? You know you're watching this video with your eyes, hearing it with your ears. Your senses show you the world as it is. They aren't deceiving you, but sometimes they do. You might mistake a person far away for someone else, or you're sure you're about to catch a flyball, and it hits the ground in front of you. But come on, right here and now, you know what's right in front of you is real. Your eyes, your hands, your body: that's you. Only crazy people would deny that, and you know you're not crazy. Anyone who'd doubt that must be dreaming. Oh no, what if you're dreaming? Dreams feel real. You can believe you're swimming, flying or fighting off monsters with your bare hands, when your real body is lying in bed. No, no, no. When you're awake, you know you're awake. Ah! But when you aren't, you don't know you aren't, so you can't prove you aren't dreaming. Maybe the body you perceive yourself to have isn't really there. Maybe all of reality, even its abstract concepts, like time, shape, color and number are false, all just deceptions concocted by an evil genius! No, seriously. Descartes asks if you can disprove the idea that an evil genius demon has tricked you into believing reality is real. Perhaps this diabolical deceiver has duped you. The world, your perceptions of it, your very body. You can't disprove that they're all just made up, and how could you exist without them? You couldn't! So, you don't. Life is but a dream, and I bet you aren't row, row, rowing the boat merrily at all, are you? No, you're rowing it wearily like the duped, nonexistent doof you are/aren't. Do you find that convincing? Are you persuaded? If you aren't, good; if you are, even better, because by being persuaded, you would prove that you're a persuaded being. You can't be nothing if you think you're something, even if you think that something is nothing because no matter what you think, you're a thinking thing, or as Descartes put it, "I think, therefore I am," and so are you, really. (Airplane engine)
Kuidas sa tead, et sa oled päris? Küsimus kõlab jaburalt kuni üritad sellele vastata aga võtame seda tõsiselt. Kuidas sa tõesti tead, et sa oled olemas? Oma "Mõtisklustes Esimesest Filosoofiast" üritas René Descartes sellele küsimusele vastata tehes maatasa kõik oma senised teadmised ja arvamused et alustada algusest. Kõik ta teadmised olid tulnud sellest, mida ta meeltega oli kogenud. Nagu sul, eksole? Sa tead, et vaatad seda videot oma silmadega ning kuuled seda kõrvadega. Meeled tutvustavad sulle maailma Üldiselt nad sind ei peta, aga vahel siiski. Kaugelt vaadates võid pidada mõnd inimest kellekski teiseks või siis olla kindel, et püüad palli kinni, aga ikkagi kukub see su ette maha. Aga ikkagi, siin ja praegu tead sa ju mis sinu ees on tõeline. Sinu silmad, sinu käed, su keha: see oled sina. Ainult hullumeelsed eitaksid seda, ja sina pole ju hull. See, kes kahtleks selles, peaks und nägema. Oh ei, äkki sina näed und? Unenäod tunduvad tõelised. Sa võid uskuda, et ujud, lendad võitled paljakäsi koletistega samas kui su päris keha lamab voodis. Ei, ei, ei. Kui oled ärkvel, siis oled ärkvel. Ah! Aga kui sa ei ole, siis sa ei tea, et sa ei ole, nii et sa ei saa tõestada, et sa ei näe und. Äkki keha, mida sa pead iseendaks, ei ole päriselt olemas. Äkki kõik reaalsus, isegi kõige üldisemad ideed nagu aeg, kuju, värv ja number on väärad Lihtsalt pettused, mille on sepistanud kuri geenius! Ei, päriselt. Descartes küsib, kas sa saad tõestada et kuri geenius-deemon ei ole sind pannud uskuma et reaalsus on olemas. Võib-olla see deemonlik petis on sind ninapidi vedanud. Maailm, sinu tajud, sinu keha. Sa ei saa tõestada, et need pole kõik välja mõeldud ja kuidas sa oleksid olemas ilma nendeta? Ei olekski! Seega - sind pole olemas. Elu on kõigest unenägu. Ja sa ei sõua, sõua, sõua oma paati sugugi nii rõõmsameelselt. Ei, sa sõuad seda vaevaliselt. Sest sa oled/ei ole petetud, olematu vaeseke Kõlab see sulle usutavalt? Oled sa veendud? Kui ei ole, siis hästi. Kui oled, veel parem. Sest kui sind saab veenda, oled sa ära veennatav olend. Sa ei saa olla mitte-midagi, kui arvad, et oled midagi, isegi, kui arvad et "miski" on mittemiski. sest ükskõik, mida sa ka ei mõtle, sa oled mõtlev olend. või, nagu Descartes ütles: "Ma mõtlen, järelikult olen olemas," ja nii oled ka sina, tõesti. (Lennukimootor)