Do You Really Exist?

How do you know that you really exist? It's an easy question to answer, but only you can answer it. If you are reading this post and thinking about it, then you definitely exist and you are a discrete conscious entity. "I think, therefore I am" - cogito ergo sum .

The difficult question is how do you know other people exist? Maybe I'm not a real person at all (I've had my doubts). How can you prove that I am a conscious, thinking person like you? I might actually be a computer program. Does it matter if I am?

What if all the other people in your life are illusions? They might be like the computer-generated characters in The Matrix. Or they could be extensions of your own mind, created by you for your own amusement.

If you think that only you exist then you are a "solipsist". I think solipsism is an interesting but pointless concept. Consciousness is surely wider spread than most people realise. I believe that all life is conscious, right down to individual cells and including those cells in the human body, it's just that the degree of consciousness varies from life-form to life-form.

Read my earlier post:  #What is Reality?