If I stop thinking do I cease to exist?

Question: If I stop thinking do I cease to exist!?

My English teacher was having a philosophical conversation with us today and said that we can prove we exist by the concept of "I think, therefore I am" (by someone called Descartes, sorry if that's spelled wrong I have never heard of him prior to today)!. But what happens if I stop thinking, do I just cease to exist or does that mean I never existed in the first place/can't prove it!? I find this very interesting and was wondering if anyone could explain that to me or give me resources that do!. ThanksWww@QuestionHome@Com

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:

Descartes did actually imply that if we stopped thinking then we would cease to exist altogether!. He believed that the ability to think critically was the essence of being a human!. However, your English teacher is wrong!. We cannot prove that we exist through the "Cogito Ergo Sum" ("I think, therefore I am")!. Why!? Look at the argument more closely!. Descartes is saying this:

I think
Therefore, I am (I exist)

Is he not supposed to be PROVING that he exists!? Is this not the reason why Descartes used the "Cogito" (the "I think therefore I am" argument)!? Yet, does he not assume the existence of the self when using the term "I" in the statement "I think"!? He does!. He assumes he already exists, but this is what he was supposed to be proving!. Since he is assuming what he supposed to be proving, he is arguing in a "circle" ("circular reasoning")!. He doesn't prove anything!. Www@QuestionHome@Com

Until you had posted your question, I had no idea that you existed!. Whether you were thinking or not, as far as I was concerned, you didn't exist!.

I have a feeling, contrary to what your teacher said, that if you stopped thinking for 5 minutes while you were standing in front of me that you would not vanish -- cease to exist!. And when you started to think, you wouldn't automatically re-appear!.

Www@QuestionHome@Com

in philosophy by stop thinking the philosopher refers to a direction, philosophically if some one stops thinking means that he/she is not planning nor he/she is falling in to any desire ,feelings like happiness and grief they all even take a side walk , hence if you see the effects ,gives you a picture that you have ceased to exist!.
A Scientific perspective is that the human planning process initiates with the thinking process,from controllable movements to the uncontrollable ones ,every thing is through the thinking process , even what runs in the subconscious mind is an impression of your thinking process!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

Your thoughts are just a reference frame!. Everything is relative!. You continue to exist in the effects you made!. But as in the sense of being a witness to reality, just a viewer detached from the universe itself, that ceases to exist in the present and future!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

I think if you ceased to think, it would simply mean you could not prove your existence!. not necessarily that you do not exist!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

I don't believe in Descartes idea
I'm more of a believer of George Berkley who said that to be percieved is to existWww@QuestionHome@Com

you are suffering from Solipsism syndrome !. check it out on wikipedia!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

No, but but you may be declared "brain dead!."Www@QuestionHome@Com

i would think not because you are still the physical!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

whats does your physic teacher got to say!.!.!.about existance and substancesWww@QuestionHome@Com

George W Bush is still here ,isn't he !?Www@QuestionHome@Com

if ur in a vegetative state do you dissappear!? lawlWww@QuestionHome@Com

No!.!.!. If we're going by the law of attraction and the ideas of deliberate intent then you would simply go into "autopilot"!. It's actually physically impossible to stop thinking so maybe, in a way, that is right!. But you would have to reverse the order - rather than your end of thinking causing death, death would cause an end to your thinking!. If you stop thinking consciously, then you go into autopilot and create by default!. That's just my 2 cents!.!.!. :-D

I would just like to also challenge John J down there (just a friendly debate) ;-)

I'm assuming that since you agree that to be perceived is to exist would reasonably mean that if no one perceives you, then you don't exist!. HOWEVER - how connected is one's perception with actual reality!? Are they one in the same, or are they separate entities!? If you have a wart and don't realize it's there (i!.e!. - perceive it's existence), does that make it any less real!? Just a thought, again!.!.!. :)Www@QuestionHome@Com

No!. You don't cease to exist when you stop thinking!. Quite often, when you are in a deep "REM"-less sleep, you are both (1) not thinking and (2) not even sensing the world, let alone thinking about what you sense!.

Your English teacher may have slightly misinterpreted Descartes's "Cogito" (I think therefore I am!.), which is not a proof of existence, but what Descartes thought to be the MOST CERTAIN PRINCIPLE OF THOUGHT!. In effect:- Even if an "evil demon" is deceiving us about everything we think we know, everytime we think, even if we think wrongly, we cannot be deceived about our own existences as thinking subjects!.

The reference to an "evil demon" deceiving us, is in Descartes's "Meditation on 1st Philosophy", where he doesn't explicitly state the "Cogito", which was apparently written in one of his other works!. But Descartes does think that the "Cogito" is the MOST CERTAIN PRINCIPLE of thinking, thereby obscuring Aristotle's explanation of the 1st Principle of Thought in his much longer treatise called "The Metaphysics", written about 21 centuries earlier!.

In that work Aristotle states the 1st Principle of Thought (again the most certain principle, like Descartes was "arguing for" in his "Meditation") is that:-

"The same attribute cannot at the same time, belong and not belong to the same subject in the same respect!."

The references to subject, attribute, time and respect are hugely amplified in other treatises of Aristotle's!. But, put simply, Aristotle argues that everyone who knows anything at all, about anything, knows and employs the above cited "1st principle" in their own thinking and with respect to their own knowledge!. They do not go around "wondering" about whether or not they exist, or whether or not they are "dreaming" --- which is how Descartes initially argues for his "evil demon" and Certainty principle --- with a dream argument!.

So if your English or Philosophy professor ever asks you HOW you know whether or not you are dreaming, or whether or not you exist, ask HIM or HER why she or he seems "to think" that you are in his or her dream!. Then you may amplify that same "counter question" with questions as to WHY you are paying a school to have dreams, when your own dreams are "free" and "far more interesting"!.

You may also want to ask whether or not your professor or teacher expects to be "paid money" for not knowing whether or not they are "teaching a class" or "dreaming a class"!.

I warn you!. Sometimes "professors" become annoyed by questions about being paid salararies for "dreaming" their classes!. But "turn about" is always "fair play" in philosophy class and especially in actual philosophy, according to all of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle!.

Kevin
Www@QuestionHome@Com