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)
Bagaimana kau yakin dirimu nyata? Pertanyaan ini memang mudah sampai akhirnya kau menjawabnya. Namun, jawablah dengan serius. Bagaimana kau begitu yakin dirimu ada? Dalam buku “Meditasi Filsafat Pertama”, René Descartes mencoba menjawabnya. Dia mengesampingkan semua keyakinan dan opininya untuk memulai lagi dari dasar. Semua ilmunya berasal dari pemahaman indranya akan dunia. Sama denganmu, ’kan? Kau menonton video ini dengan matamu, mendengarnya dengan telingamu. Semua indramu menunjukkan dunia. Dunia tidak menipumu, tapi terkadang begitu. Kau bisa salah mengira orang yang kau kenal dari kejauhan atau kau yakin bisa menangkap bola, tapi bola itu malah jatuh di depanmu. Namun, ayolah, di sini dan saat ini, kau tahu semua yang di depanmu nyata. Mata, tangan, tubuhmu: itulah dirimu. Orang gila akan menyangkalnya, tapi kau tidak gila. Siapa pun yang meragukannya pasti sedang bermimpi. Oh, tidak. Bagaimana jika memang mimpi? Mimpi terasa nyata. Kau yakin sedang berenang, terbang, atau melawan monster dengan tangan kosong saat tubuh aslimu berbaring di kasur. Tidak. Saat kau bangun, kau tahu kau sedang bangun. Oh! Namun, saat tertidur, kau tidak menyadarinya. Tak bisa dipastikan kau sedang bermimpi. Mungkin tubuh yang kau anggap milikmu tak benar-benar ada. Mungkin semua realitas, bahkan konsep abstraknya, seperti waktu, bentuk, warna, dan angka, salah semua. Semua hanya tipuan yang dikarang oleh genius jahat! Ya, aku serius. Descartes menanyakan apa kau bisa membantah gagasan bila iblis genius jahat tengah membuatmu memercayai bahwa realitas ini nyata. Bisa jadi iblis penipu ini telah memperdayamu. Dunia, persepsimu terhadapnya, tubuhmu. Kau tidak bisa menyangkal semua itu hanya dibuat-buat. Bagaimana kau ada tanpa itu semua? Tak bisa kau sangkal! Jadi, tak kau sangkal. Hidup tak lain hanyalah mimpi. Aku yakin hidupmu tidak dijalani dengan sukacita, ’kan? Tidak, kau susah payah menjalaninya seperti orang pandir tak nyata yang tertipu, atau mungkin tidak. Apa hal itu terdengar meyakinkan? Apa kau terbujuk? Jika tidak, bagus. Jika iya, itu lebih baik. Sebab, andai kau terbujuk, kau membuktikan dirimu sebagai “makhluk” yang diyakinkan. Kau bukan hal yang tiada jika kau anggap dirimu sesuatu, sekalipun kau anggap sesuatu itu bukanlah apa-apa. Sebab, apa pun yang kau pikirkan, kau sedang memikirkan sesuatu, seperti ungkapan Descartes: “Aku berpikir. Karenanya, aku ada.” Begitu pula dirimu, sungguh. (Deru Mesin Pesawat)