| There are two main claims that I think you may be touching on: 1. The question of whether concepts exist in the absence of a human mind to imagine them. This is still debated in philosophy. I'm not an expert, so I won't make a claim about this, but I will point out that if it was easy to resolve, it probably wouldn't be a field of active debate after 2000+ years. 2. The question of whether it is necessary that _something_ physically must exist. This I do make a strong claim on: it is not necessary that something physically exist. There is no law that forces objects to exist. We find ourselves in a universe where objects do exist. This is not required. It just happens to be the case. Side-note: I find the response "Nope :)" to be kindof condescending. I realize English may be a second language to you, so maybe you don't feel the subtle jab in that -- no worries if so, I'm sure I make the same mistakes in other languages all the time. Smiley faces are definitely allowed online, but in general I'd say to use them when making a joke or when acknowledging your own mistake. Edit: In case somebody is curious, "the question of whether concepts exist in the absence of a human mind to imagine them" is debated at least since plato's time. I believe these concepts-that-exist-without-humans are sometimes called Platonic Forms. They are good for a wikipedia binge! |
This was in response to: > Side-note: the deontological argument is an argument for the existence of God, which uses the same principle as the grandparent
which was not actually true. This is not the same principle. Maybe the way I expressed the idea wasn't too clear. A close principle, would be Descartes' cogito perhaps...
The question of whether a concept exists even in the absence of the human mind is easy to answer. Without arguments to authority, it suffices to realize that every past event that predates a human being is a concept for that same human. Every future event, even what one is likely to do the next day, is also a concept.
Besides, why human? this is too anthropocentric. It should be extended to animals at the very least.
Or let's have another example: you don't really perceive UV light, and let's say you've never been told that it exists and you live in a cave. You will never interact with it. That does not mean that it does not exist. Whether as a physical concept or merely a pure concept which is then a probability. Even if that probability is 0 or negative even (negative??? we are veering quantum :).
It's probabilistic, not all of these concepts are realized materialistically (for future events that is).
An apple exists even in the absence of humans. So does its concept. Awareness of the existence of this concept is a different thing. One must not forget that, as wise and introspective as some of the ancients were, they were also prone to a lot of cognitive biases such as anthropocentrism.
In essence, my original point is closer to the one of greek philosopher Parmenides.
But this is again not about physical existence. Matter is just data with a set of properties and interaction rules. One of them being existence. A physicist would call matter a special kind of spatial perturbation perhaps.
On a whole other note, I am curious: what made it appear as if English was a second language? :)