The Members of TPF Exist

javi2541997

As someone who is genuinely interested in who I am while I am dreaming, I have been posed in a deep thought for the past few days. I understand that most philosophers still ignore dreams and may not take their content seriously, but what does happen when I am aware that I am interacting with you right now, as well as when I am dreaming?

Regardless of whether this belongs to epistemology, metaphysics, or psychology, I believe we should examine the extent to which you exist within my knowledge and consciousness.

I had a dream. A very basic and innocent dream. I was interacting with you here in TPF, noticing user names like "Jamal", "T Clark", and "Banno", and I was quite aware that you were also interacting with me, because of the notifications in "my mentions". It seemed very real until I woke up, and I asked myself: What if your dreams are telling you you can see them there -in the world of dreams-, and you are creating that image to fool yourself into thinking they are there?

If someone asks me to "prove that TPF users exist," I might respond by saying they exist because they can cause certain experiences in me. But the argument becomes more solid when you appear in both my reality and my dreams. My point is not to justify your existence, but that you exist at least for me.

The source of dreaming with you is undoubtedly the experience, but who can tell that I am wrong if I believe it is also a way of suggesting that you exist?

Even if I was in a dream, my ability to have these thoughts, including interacting with you, proved your existence.

Michael

Even if I was in a dream, my ability to have these thoughts, including interacting with you, proved your existence. — javi2541997

Does dreaming of Zeus prove that Zeus exists?

javi2541997

↪Michael

My dream was based on the experience of interacting with other living beings like me, not deities or gods. I believe that addresing Zeus is not particularly relevant to the existence of you, me, and the other members of this forum.

Michael

My dream was based on the experience of interacting with other living beings like me, not deities or gods. I believe that addresing Zeus is not particularly relevant to the existence of you, me, and the other members of this forum. — javi2541997

You’re arguing that dreaming of X is proof that X exists.

If the argument fails when X is Zeus then it fails when X is Michael.

jorndoe

↪Michael

, but Zeus does exist, he's just not real. ;)

javi2541997

You’re arguing that dreaming of X is proof that X exists.

If the argument fails when X is Zeus then it fails when X is Michael. — Michael

No, it does not fail.

There are different subjects in your premises. Zeus is a deity, and its characteristics are based on Greek mythology. It is the subject of a "myth", nothing close to something real.

Meanwhile, Michael or Javi is real, because you are causing me to feel certain experiences. There are some chances that you might appear in my dreams, because the source of your existence (at least in what I consider real) is based in my experience of interacting with you. Then, you exist.

I have never experienced Zeus, nor did I dream with him. I think it is pretty obvious the cause: his source of existence is missing.

However, the source of your existence is obvious to me.

Michael

Meanwhile, Michael or Javi is real — javi2541997

You’re begging the question.

Your argument is now “if I dream of X and if X exists then X exists”.

Jack Cummins

↪javi2541997

When I have been interacting on the forum, I find that it affects both my conscious experience and dreams. At times, the communication seems more real if I know a little about the person I am communicating with.

At times, I have dreamt that I am interacting on the forum and either disappointed or relieved that the exchange was not 'real'. At one point, I even dreamt that my own threads were rolled up as scrolls beside my bed. The experience of communicating on the forum seems to make philosophy surreal. Previous to that my own philosophy reading felt rather lonely and cut off, so I have felt some validification as a thinker in interaction on the forum. I don't mind the surreal aspect because, in a way all communication is surreal in the sense that communication between others involves imaginary aspects of listening and interpretation.

javi2541997

You’re begging the question.

Your argument is now “if I dream of X and if X exists then X exists”. — Michael

I guess you disagree with my notion, right?

javi2541997

At times, I have dreamt that I am interacting on the forum and either disappointed or relieved that the exchange was not 'real'. — Jack Cummins

I know that feeling. I experienced something similar. After waking up, I felt disappointed because the mentions were all products of my dream. Nonetheless, I still think that my dream did not cheat me because I actually dreamt with people who I interact with in this forum. If they also appear in my dreams, then they have to be real. You evoke certain experiences in me that lead me to believe you exist.

Nils Loc

I have never experienced Zeus, nor did I dream with him. I think it is pretty obvious the cause: his source of existence is missing. — javi2541997

You've used the phrase "dreaming with" several times, whereas "dreaming of" sounds more apt. It's kind of odd because in order to dream with someone you'd have to share in the same content.

Joseph Campbell called myth (shared narrative/ideas about what is) communal dream. So maybe we can stretch this to the concept of dreams/reality as the domain of social constructions, reality as shared/directed hallucination.

The frustration of a lucid dream is apparent in and round those rare moments when you take what is occurring in a dream to be reality. The only notable example of this was thinking I had a drawer full of cash, which evaporated on waking. :groan:

Michael

I guess you disagree with my notion, right? — javi2541997

I’m saying that your argument is fallacious.

Either it’s a non sequitur because “therefore X exists” does not follow from “I dreamed of X” or it begs the question because you’ve independently assumed that X exists (and in which case your dream is irrelevant).

javi2541997

You've used the phrase "dreaming with" several times, whereas "dreaming of" sounds more apt. It's kind of odd because in order to dream with someone you'd have to share in the same content. — Nils Loc

It was a grammar oopsie, sorry.

The frustration of a lucid dream is apparent in and round those rare moments when you take what is occurring in a dream to be reality. The only notable example of this was thinking I had a drawer full of cash, which evaporated on waking. — Nils Loc

It is frustrating butsatisfactory at the same time. Lucid dreams are fun, yet I think I should not consider my dream as lucid because I wasn't aware that I was dreaming of you. I came to this conclusion when I woke up.

javi2541997

↪Michael

Whether my dream is irrelevant or not is not the case, Michael. The point is that I have knowledge and consciousness that you exist because you caused me certain experiences in both dreams and reality. Disagreeing with my point may mean that you do not exist in one of these. :sad:

I am interacting with you right now, so you exist. Wait when I dream of you. :cool:

hypericin

The point is that I have knowledge and consciousness that you exist because you caused me certain experiences in both dreams and reality. — javi2541997

Here and in several other cases you are presuming your conclusion, that we exist. Only if we exist, have we caused these experiences in you, in reality. (But much less so in dreams. It seems more accurate to say that your mind, creatively using these experiences as a foundation, synthesized your dreams. We have no causal efficacy in what specifically did and didn't happen in your dreams.)

Suppose that I, and everyone else but you on this site, were all AI personas. If so, we would impart the same experiences to you, and you would have the same dreams about them. So these experiences and dreams themselves cannot prove that we are not AI. You might argue in various ways that this AI hypothesis is profoundly unlikely, and I would agree. But I don't think you can prove it is not the case.

javi2541997

↪hypericin

I agree, sort of.

First, I think I didn't claim that your existence made a cause in my dreams, and I did because I write a lot of word salad. I am sorry because it wasn't my intention. What I said is that the source of your existence seems legit to me because I had (literally) the same experience of interacting with you in both reality and dreams. For me, this is more than sufficient to claim that you actually exist. This is not about identifying a cause, but rather exploring the origin of why you influence certain experiences or stimuli in my life.

On the other hand, I even believe that my point would also be plausible if you were AI, because my argument is that I suggest you exist because you interfere in me. It is not possible to dream of God or Zeus because they never made an impact on me. But I consider it plausible to dream of you, Michael or Baden. Isn't this a good starting point to consider people real?

Nils Loc

Wait when I dream of you. — javi2541997

Dream Michael is an incarnation of Zeus... He is sporting a gilded purple himation right now in a aural sphere on planet Jupiter in the eye of the red storm. Hopefully this suggestion will have amusing effects.

"Even the gods who are not his natural children address him as Father, and all the gods rise in his presence." (Homer) Guess it comes with being a mod.

But you are resistant to silly associative contamination for good reasons. No amount of telling you that Michael is (like) Zeus will make you believe that Michael is (like) Zeus.

But we should try anyway. Michael (what/which Michael?) is like Zeus (what/which Zeus?).

Quis ut Deus?

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