When you walk around the corner

and I cant see you, especially after you’ve left my thoughts…

I can’t prove to myself that you continue to exist.

A case of out of sight out of mind? but in our minds we know that they still exist… for survival’s sake we need to acknowledge that they still exist… the current state of the world being a case in point.

That’s true.

There is a need for the idea of others, or a preference to believe in others, but don’t understand why beyond loneliness.

There’s a David Lewis paper where he talks about his cat walking around the room behind him, and how he knows it’s his cat even though there’d be uncertainty because he couldn’t see it behind him. It’s a good read. I think it’s called, “Elusive Knowledge”.

Wouldn’t trust my eyes enough to know they were scanning. More elusive?

I believe in such a case, one need to bring contexts into consideration.

One critical point is related to survival [as pointed out above] re threats and opportunities.
If a person [e.g. jihadist] is a ‘threat’ and carrying a weapon looking for people to kill and have walked around the corner, I have to assume with a higher probability the jihadist still exist/alive.

Philosophically there is no 100% certainty, re Hume, as we can never be sure even of the Sun [untracked] will rise tomorrow morning, we cannot be certain the person who had walked around the corner still exist/alive. Anything could have happen outside our sight.

In the absence of serious threats, the consideration whether the person is existing, alive or physically present after disappearing round a corner will depend on various contexts.

There’s another one about that called something like, “Veridical Hallucination and Prosthetic VIsion”. Do you believe that x=x and that 2 things can be identical and that for any given thing there is a quantity of said thing?

Yeah, I believe 2 things can be identical, but I probably operate more often as if there is a chance they not identical. If don’t think about it, I treat given things as having a certain quantity. However, if I do think about it, I’m more of a infinite oneness person.

You seem to be up on papers.

Do you stop existing when people stop seeing your or thinking about you? No? Then there’s no reason to think it happens to anyone else. Proof is a matter of convincing~

I suppose I could answer that a few ways . . .

I would have to know that such people have thoughts, even in my presence. Which I have yet to prove. They display behavior that suggests thinking, like me, but I don’t know that they have thoughts.

They would have to continue to exist outside of my perception to think of me outside their perception, which is the same problem as the op.

I prefer to believe there are others, near me and away from me, because I am lonely. I am god, we are god, even though I don’t feel godly now. At best this oneness has split into many for the sake of company or a mirror effect. In a sense, I prefer you to reply to me like you did, to challenge me, so I can think of others as real. To present me with a multitude of perspectives.

Although it is all an illusion, it is almost convincing. More persistent than convincing.

I believe that question re 'Tree in forest falling in the forest and no one around … it there a sound?" is applicable to the above OP as well.

Thoughts are known because people move. No movement, no thoughts, no behavior, no thoughts.

You can go down a rabbit hole in which nothing makes any sense if one doubts reasoned logic. Of course, it is profound a good way to begin to question everything, but solipsism doesn’t really explain anything about reality. The perception of reality is an illusion perhaps, I’m not so sure about reality being an illusion. There’s really nothing to back that up and all evidence points towards the contrary.

Why would you have to?
Just let it all go and it will take care of itself.
Everything does, eventually.

Or what you could do is go to a nearby roof and look down. Better view of him or her from there. :mrgreen:

haha, true, true. :slight_smile:

Playing a video game, I climbed onto the roof of skyscraper. I could see the game characters with a sniper rifle in the distance. After a certain point the characters were walking to a spot then disappearing. I suppose the game programmers didn’t account for a player seeing so far or from that angle. Those characters were no longer required to simulate the simulation and keep the illusion of full city going. Re-alotting data, thus allowing for more intense and lifelike foreground.

This thread is about the competency of our real world programmer(s). Just how perfect is he, she, it, them?

We all always end up seeking out another… even when alone.

Philosophically speaking though: perhaps we don’t care if a person still exists once we have gone round the corner, as our heads are full of insular thoughts most times… an existence for one. And perhaps in those instances they, and everything else, cease to exist.

I like this post a lot. :slight_smile:

‘prove to myself’ is pretty vague. If one is skeptical even if I am present, you may be hallucinating, dreaming, on drugs, confusing my twin with me, or a stranger who looks like me. Prove is probably a poor word choice. I feel happy to consider it knowledge that other people exist when they are not directly in my line of sight.

Why thank you, unknowing… I appreciate your appreciation of my post in response to your’s. :wink: