How do I know that I'm alive?

Question: How do I know that I'm alive!?

If I'm a rational human- yet I'm biased and subjective to everything I've seen and I've never experienced NOT being alive, per se- how do I know I AM alive!? Sure, my heart beats!.!.!.but yet who am I to say that that's life!?Www@QuestionHome@Com

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:

First thing that one learns in philosophy, from Descartes:
"Cogito ergo sum"

OR

"I think,
Therefore I am"

Descartes said that the only think that one truly knows, is that one is capable of thought!. Descartes said that the human body, and it's tools of perception could be fooled!. The example he gave was dreamstate!. In a dream, you can see, smell, hear, taste, and touch!. But, it's not real, even though it feels extemely real!.

Thus Descartes said that since our sensory organs could not be trusted, that our physical perception is fallable, all that you really know is that your mind works, that you are thinking!. The shoes on your feet, the ambient noise and temperature, the person that you see next to you and everything else can be your sensory system lying to you!. All that you know, is that you exist, and are capable of interpreting this!. You exist because you are thinking!.

This does not answer your question, because, philosophically there is no answer!. A true philosopher would reference Descartes and, then, ask you, how you know that you are NOT alive!. How do you know that you are not alive!?Www@QuestionHome@Com

Who are you to say it!? You are in the right position to say it, because or example your heart beating!. For the word means something, and there's pretty good agreement over what it means, and over its indications in the world!.

So it's not anything to fret over!. There's no paradox!. No dilemma, no unanswerable question!.

And you do not have to know all there is to know about life and life force and what have you, to know whether you belong in the category of the living!.

Note that if you do not know for sure that you are actually alive and conscious in the physical world rather than exclusively some other one(s), then you are not awake, as in the BIG AWAKE!.

But alive!? I can assure you, you're alive!.

I think you were bulls****thing when you asked, but just in case you're having a freakin' existential/biological crisis,!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

Well, really what does it matter!? We usually take "alive" to mean being aware, sensing things, and having thoughts!. Obviously this is not the biological definition of life, but it is the definition which matters to us!. (also the biological definition of life, and biology in general, is not equipped or designed to handle the heavy skepticism you are showing!.)

While you are right, you cannot be entirely sure that you are biologically alive, there is no doubt that you are alive in this other sense (just see Descartes' famous Cogito argument for the details)!. And it is this sense which really matters to us and is why we fear death!. We don't fear death because it means our hearts will stop or because we will stop breathing, etc, we fear death because it means the end of thinking, sensing, and being!.

You say that you've never experienced not being alive, but there is something paradoxical about that statement!. In order to experience, you, by the definition I give above, must be alive!. Certainly there have been times (many billions of years in fact) when you were not alive!. The only reason why you don't think that time gets to count as "experiencing not being alive" is because you weren't actually there to experience it, but if you had been, you would have been alive! I guess the weirdness of the statement is more apparent if you read it as "I've never experienced not existing!."

One final point, I don't see what the fact that none of us have experienced not being alive (assuming it were even possible to have such an experience) gets to count against our certainty that we are alive!. I have never experienced not being a human, but I still get to be pretty sure I am a human, and if I wasn't so sure I was human, then I couldn't be sure that I had never experienced what it was like to not be a human!. Or to use the example above, I have never experienced "not existing," but even though I have never expeirenced that, I can still be certain I exist!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

If someone slapped me in the face as hard as they could for no reason at all!. Both they and I would discover how alive I am!. In short I have thoughts, emotions, and feelings which I would express to them immediately and with passion!. Another "alive" term!.!. If I did not have them and did not respond at all to that then I very well could be dead "per se"!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

When the wind blows through the trees what is making the rustling sound, the wind or the trees!? Can the trees rustle without the wind!? Does the wind blowing into nothing make a noise!? Is your existence merely the rustling of the leaves caused by the wind or do your leaves rustle on their own!? Without the wind (stimulus) your leaves (mind) would be motionless!. You are alive because your leaves rustle!.

Descartes was wrong because he was unaware of how the mind is formed by stimulus!. Our brains are practically jello when we are born!. Without any stimulus they would not form into anything!. Our perceptions, whether acurate or not, are formed through stimulus!. The stimulus by itself is nothing!. Our brain by itself is nothing!. We also know that different chemicals in our brains create stimulus based on past experiences!. Even in these situations we need a backdrop of experience on which to paint our perceptions!.

The interesting point to this is are we more what our brains are or more what the stimulus has been!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

finally someone thinks the same way i do!.
i take things and i think so physologically it isnt even funny!.

what i think it means is you do somthing so GREAT and fantastic and adventerous that is WOW you fell so like lifted and everything around you doesnt matter!

that is how i tink you should live your life!.!.!. with nothing stopping you!

to bad we have to be "dead" a lot of the times!Www@QuestionHome@Com

The part of you that knows you are alive is not dependant upon inhabiting a physical body!. It is alive, and it is immortal!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

I think therefore I am - René Descartes
The simple meaning of the phrase is that if someone is wondering whether or not he exists, that is in and of itself proof that he does exist!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

Well, you've summed up the answer in the question!. You say 'I've never experienced not being alive'!. Therefore, you are alive!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

Well, if you have to ask, you probably aren't!. Existing or self-deception are different matters!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

when you begin caring for somebody else besides yourself!. could be your parents or your cat or even a tree, as long as you know you would be incomplete without them!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

you can't prove it, just accept that it's the most likely explanationWww@QuestionHome@Com

"Unbeing dead isn't being alive!." E!.E!. CummingsWww@QuestionHome@Com

life means movment!.!.memory !.!.!.pain etc you have these!.!.!.your classified alive!!Www@QuestionHome@Com

good point!Www@QuestionHome@Com