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Originally Posted by truncated
There is, unarguably, nothing that 'exists' outside human definition. And so, insofar as existence is based on autonomy, there cannot be absolutes. There isn't anything that can be taken outside the context of human experience or imposed definition. (I realize I'm using ambiguous terms like "nothing" and "anything," but for the purposes of argument, they are appropriate.) Without the ability to remove the handicaps of imposed perception, one simply cannot isolate definitives. In short, nothing is "real."
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at the risk of antagonizing everyone here yet again, wrong. as the most obvious counterexample to your point, consider the following: let us suppose that not only every human, but every sentient being were to suddenly disappear from the universe. now nothing would be left to perceive objective reality any longer, but the ONLY things that would cease to exist would be the sentient beings themselves, and the attendant mental and conscious states they possessed. our PERCEPTION of objects would no longer exist, but the objects themselves, being independent of anyone's perception of them, would persist. to say otherwise is to erroneously conflate epistemology and metaphysics, much as berkeley did when he asserted that there are only ideas and that the existence of x is dependent upon the perception of some consciousness y (with x's persistence through time without human perception attributable only to the constant perception of god).
to address spectraljulianisnotdead's point, "sum ergo cogito" in my view should be taken to be prescriptive rather than descriptive: "i am, therefore i'll think." because conceptual thought and rational activity are central to man's survival, his existence necessitates cognitive thought. obviously, some men are incapable of such thought, but that is not the point. and i maintain that descartes was wrong to begin his inquiry by questioning existence: existence is so fundamental a concept as to be axiomatic. also, descartes should not have questioned the evidence of his senses: any attempt to discredit the senses will contain at least one premise derived from the evidence of the senses.
and no, i will not capitalize. i'm too old to change.
