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How do we know that we are real
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and that we actually exist?
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Sure, we can look at ourselves
in the mirror, pinch ourselves
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or bang our heads against the wall,
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But even that, could just be
something that we imagine.
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However, how are we able
to imagine something,
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if we don't exist?
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And that's how we get to the
crux of the matter:
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When we question reality,
if what we are seeing
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is real or not, there is always us.
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That isn't up for discussion.
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But how can we be
certain of our existence?
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Precisely:
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To be or not be,
that is the question here!
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The concept of `being' has the broadest
definition by far,
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because it relates to
everything conceivable.
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To our house, our boat,
our investment advisor
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and, of course, ourselves!
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"Everything that is conceivable,"
therefore also means:
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everything that "is not" isn't.
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And all of that combined
is infinite!
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Boldly stated:
nothing exists outside of being,
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as everything that exists
is part of being.
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But that is only half the battle
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Because being isn't
equal to existence.
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In the Middle Ages, "existence" was
distinguished into that
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which was essential which was the
"necessary existence".
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That which was essential for
everyone and everything
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was the basis for everything
that existed,
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and was naturally called God.
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There where the necessary exists,
the unnecessary doesn't seem far away.
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Thus the 2nd kind of the existence
was defined as "not necessary"...
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simply things which nobody needs!
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USB ashtrays, inflatable cell phone
holders, breakfast egg heads,
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pasta in a cooking bag,
microwave slippers.... okay.
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Apart from that which no one needs,
there is also the existence
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of that which can be almost impossible:
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the "impossible existence".
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Does that mean that God
is unable to create a rock
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that he himself cannot lift!!!
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Then how can something exist
that is more powerful
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than the necessary existence?
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Kant then proposed sensuality
and experience...
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his sources of understanding!
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Should that then mean,
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that things appear to exist,
because of the way we experience them.
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His colleague Hegel saw it like this:
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The unity of essence
and appearance,
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of essence and existence is reality.
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So, the essence must appear,
then the being is essence
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and the essence is being....
Uh…Wait a moment
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So, to summarise:
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the essence of being
is essential being.
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Plain and simple, the existence.
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Kierkegaard saw it differently yet again
and thus
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became the founder of the
philosophy of existence:
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"Being itself, to which the mode of being
can behave in a particular way
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and always behaves in one way or another,
we call existence".
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By this he means that this existence
is quite sufficient.
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It relates only to itself and
not to a great absolute.
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I am myself and I am responsible
for getting along with my own self.
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What else is …., I don't care!
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So much to existence.
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And to not exists at all?
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Martin Walser once said:
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"Nothing is true without
its opposite" Whoa!
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So, it's that simple then.