• ExistenceIspain
    1
    There is absolutely way for an individual to know if they were created yesterday. False memories for you and people around you photoshopped photos and fake birth certificate. If false memories can be implanted ( and there is no way to verify that the can’t be)
    There is absolutely no way for us to know for sure that the universe was not created yesterday.
    All memories could be false. Carbon dating could be a false assurance made by creating the carbon molecule to behave in that particular way. Time could be a sham.
    Is there a way?

  • Terrapin Station
    13.8k
    Knowledge doesn't imply logical certainty. (And aside from that, logic is something we constructed in the first place.)

    Worrying about whether we have logical certainty for any claim is one of the dumbest moves philosophy ever made--and philosophy has made many moves that make you wonder how it would even be capable of thing its own shoes.

    You believe things based on having good supporting reasons for belief. We have good supporting reasons for believing the world wasn't created yesterday. We have no good supporting reasons for believing that it was created yesterday.
  • macrosoft
    674


    It's a cute thought. I've enjoyed it before myself.

    As an answer to your question, I'd say that if you set the bar for proof impossibly high, then no one is going to jump over it with the right combination of words. If someone wanted to meet your challenge, they would probably do it indirectly, by attacking its relevance or inexpensiveness. By inexpensiveness I mean that it is actually easy to generate such issues by simply always setting the bar of proof impossibly high.

    Q. How can we prove that arguments aren't an illusion?
    A. [Some long argument that proves arguments aren't 'an illusion.']
    Q. But how do I know that your otherwise successful answer is not an illusion? Prove to me that I am not deceived in my perception of your sound argument's existence.
    A. How? You'll just do the same thing.
    Q. Ha. Looks like I win again.
    A. What did you win?
  • DiegoT
    318
    there is no way, there´s always a leap of faith. Robots work becouse they don´t doubt and take things for granted; if they could really think things through, they´d have to learn to bet and accept a number of assumptions for practical reasons and deal with uncertainty.
  • BrianW
    999


    This is not a paradox, it is just another way of representing your 'failure to compute'. There is no logic in it. First, the relative scale is out of order. How can a person go from processing X years of personal experience (x = your age) and 13 billion years worth of relative information, in memories, within a day and then regress to being a primitive human whose lacking that capacity in the first place? It's like waking up to find my computer has regressed to an abacus... ... ...it hasn't.

    Also, if everything we know about yesterday is false, why should today or now be any realer? Isn't today a progression from yesterday?
    If the dream is illusory then what you dream about are still illusions. Aren't the objects/subjects of illusions real within the illusion? That's how real everything is.
  • TWI
    151
    All we have are the five senses which can easily be fooled.
  • Marchesk
    4.6k
    80
    All we have are the five senses which can easily be fooled.
    TWI

    Good thing we also have brains and other people to check our ideas with.

    Although I don't know whether suck skepticism can be refuted, it's pathological. We don't have any examples of people coming into existence with memories intact. It's just a hypothetical situation we imagine. Could it be possible? I don't know. Maybe as a Boltzmann Brain?

    But it's not something we have a reason to actually suspect. It's a mere possibility, like a giant orbiting teapot, or aliens beaming brainwashing thoughts into our heads.
  • TWI
    151
    Yes, but if we wish to test those ideas we still only have our senses.
  • Marchesk
    4.6k
    Yes, but if we wish to test those ideas we still only have our senses.TWI

    Yes, but our senses tell us the world has been around for a while. So what reason do we have to suspect the skeptical scenario? What reason do we have to believe it's even possible? Because we can think it?
  • TWI
    151
    Because if the world was created yesterday, or today or even just now then our senses are deceiving us. All sorts of reasons.
  • Terrapin Station
    13.8k


    But it's kind of dumb to think any of that is worth serious consideration when the only thing it has going for it is that it's possible.
  • TWI
    151
    Well if those ideas are dumb then so is philosophy, or any ideas that are strictly non scientific.
  • Terrapin Station
    13.8k
    Well if those ideas are dumb then so is philosophy,TWI

    Some of philosophy is idiotic. Some isn't.
  • TWI
    151
    You're perfectly entitled to your opinion.
  • Marchesk
    4.6k
    Because if the world was created yesterday, or today or even just now then our senses are deceiving us. All sorts of reasons.TWI

    Yes, but only if it actually was.

    1. We don't know whether that's possible.

    2. If it is possible, then it's probably highly unlikely (statistical fluctuation results in the orderly world around us or the appearance of one).

    3. We don't have any reason for thinking it did happen (our senses and memories tell us the world has been around for a while).

    Therefore, it's reasonable to suppose the world has been around longer than yesterday.
  • BC
    13.5k
    We don't like it when people dump something on our door step and then leave. Get back here and defend your pile of crap!
  • TWI
    151
    Of course only if it was, but if it was, then probabilities would go out of the window because they would be an illusion along with the world as (we think) we know it.
  • Marchesk
    4.6k
    We don't like it when people dump something on our door step and then leave. Get back here and defend your pile of crap!Bitter Crank

    Maybe the flaming dog poop on your door popped into existence? Must you always blame the neighbors?
  • Marchesk
    4.6k
    Of course only if it was, but if it was, then probabilities would go out of the window because they would be an illusion along with the world as (we think) we know it.TWI

    Well, there is that. Same with being in a simulation.
  • TWI
    151
    Using the analogy of a computer simulation. Imagine being in a suit with sensory technology from the day you were born, you wouldn't have outside knowledge to know it was an electronic illusion, that in fact the simulation had no substance and it was being constantly created.
  • Rhasta1Accepted Answer
    46
    there aint no way to know for sure, and thats one of the main reasons why people consider life is as nothing but a stupid unfunny joke
  • Marchesk
    4.6k
    The stupid unfunny joke is the level of suffering and capriciousness of life, not the mere possibility that God created us yesterday for the LULZ.
  • Nort Fragrant
    25
    Senses, 5! are you sure?
    The segment of the spectrum our commonly known 5 senses covers is quite small.
    Therefore, the remaining unknown segment is rather large, So to question reality is outside our range as we do not have the rest of the puzzle.
    Start working on discovering your other senses !
    If you need to ask, what other senses? then you are not yet ready!
  • Rhasta1
    46
    i'd go through all kinds of pain if i knew, if i had a single clue what i was doing it for. you can do anything or rather endure all kinds of pain if you knew why you were doing it for.
    the real hell, at least for me, is not knowing why i even get up
    thats the unfunny joke
bold
italic
underline
strike
code
quote
ulist
image
url
mention
reveal
youtube
tweet
Add a Comment

Welcome to The Philosophy Forum!

Get involved in philosophical discussions about knowledge, truth, language, consciousness, science, politics, religion, logic and mathematics, art, history, and lots more. No ads, no clutter, and very little agreement — just fascinating conversations.