• JackGreenEarth
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    56 days ago

    Believing in something seems to imply thinking something to be true without having evidence for it - otherwise it would be knowledge, a justified true belief. So I know a couple things, like that I exist as a conscious being, and have practical empirical knowledge of the rest of the sensory world too.

    • @Arkouda@lemmy.caOP
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      24 days ago

      Believe means to accept as true or real, and does not define the precondition to the belief.

      How can you prove that you exist as a conscious being?

      How can you prove that your senses can be trusted?

      • JackGreenEarth
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        14 days ago
        1. I am thinking about whether I exist as a conscious being. Therefore there must be an ‘I’ to be thinking that.

        2. I can’t prove that my senses can be trusted with 100% certainty to tell me truth - in fact I can prove the opposite with things like optical illusions. However, when interacting with the world that I only know is real through my senses, basing my behaviour on those same senses that let me know the world exists seems reasonable to me. That’s what I call practical knowledge, rather than true knowledge.

        • @Arkouda@lemmy.caOP
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          14 days ago

          How do you define “I”?

          In other words you believe what your senses tell you to be real even though you cannot objectively prove your senses to be trustworthy?

          • JackGreenEarth
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            14 days ago
            1. ‘I’ is the thing that is thinking it

            2. I don’t ‘believe’ that my senses are real, but that it’s good enough to act as though they are real, regarding the sensory world.

    • @gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de
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      5 days ago

      What you just uttered is a totally valid belief in my eyes :)

      Beliefs don’t always have to be based on mere intuition alone. It’s totally fine to be able to back up what one believes with arguments.