dreaming.

[cowvin_89]

Descartes was writing one evening in his room, and he thought to himself (paraphrasing very loosely): What if I am asleep in bed right now, and only dreaming that I am awake, and writing? Isn't that at least possible? Then he said, well surely, I can tell when I am awake and when I am asleep. I can tell the difference between wakefulness and a

Comments

[jiayan]

whatever lah, who cares, think so much also no use.

YOU'RE AWAKE. and that's that.

for the record, i have thought about this before when it was mentioned briefly during history lesson last year, but after a while i figured that all this thinking wasn't going anywhere. might as well live life happy.

[cowvin_89]

HA ur not answering my question =P

but that's an admittedly good way of getting outta things ^^

[jiayan]

mmm hmmm! don't think so much. XD

[xinrui]

if one dreams that he is doubting something, then in reality he is not doubting it.
of course he isn't doubting it, he's ASLEEP!

if one is dreaming about doubting that he is making a decision, then in reality he is not doubting that he is making a decision.
i think ..all that you've managed to establish so far is that he's asleep. it doesn't mean that he's making a decision, it just means he isn't doubting that he's making a decision. which is because he is not awake.

what you're saying is that if in my dream i doubt that i am eating fish, then in reality i am not doubting that i am eating fish - so i am eating fish in reality.

i think the confusion arises because "not doubting" is not the same as "having no doubt".

[cowvin_89]

that's the logical flaw in the argument - that to use it one has to assume that no doubt = real. Unfortunately what you say is true, because not doubting just means not necessarily lying.

[cybermuse]

I'm responsibly lazy and I go with existentialism...((someone once said descartes was out-of-date, but that was e cogito sum, right?))
(回复)

[cowvin_89]

correct! the circular argument thingy heh...

and omg is that yuri? (points at avatar)

[cybermuse]

from bleach? I'm not sure what her name is, but I believe one part of it is chizuru....I really like orihime though!

[kidflashx]

Treat it as something like the EM spectrum. At any point you're experiencing a level of wakefulness (I'll leave you to decide if the dead are simply in their own level).

Ask a bee to differentiate different objects of UV wavelength. It probably can. But we cannot. Because wavelengths are relative, it's hard for us to identify wakefulness and sleep.

The idea with waves is that they can construct and destruct. Your perception of "wakefulness" and "sleep" can reinforce each other - that's how drunk drivers or sleepy drivers crash. If they destruct each other, you feel neither sleepy nor rested - the few moments after your current idea of "waking up".

I don't think I make sense. Blehz.

[cowvin_89]

we can differentiate between the 2 different states of wakefulness and sleep because characteristics that exist in wakefulness do not exist in sleep.

what is impossible to prove however is whether both in the first place are dreams or not...

[kidflashx]

"we can differentiate between the 2 different states"

Can you, really?

Have you recounted memories to the people involved, only to realize they all do not remember? Then you conclude to yourself it must have been a dream that "felt so real".

"whether both in the first place are dreams"

Dreams are just nerve impulses in the brain, firing randomly to organize your thoughts. "Wakefulness" is just stimuli firing nerve impulses in your brain.

The main difference, is that people classify themselves as asleep when they believe there is another party who can verify that they were physically not moving or responsive.

[yzq]

you're starting to sound like cjqsg! who else uses '...' as paragraph/idea separators?

[cjqsg]

YES!

[cowvin_89]

very fun wad "..."

[cowvin_89]

moreover this allows me to not be coherent =P