The only certainty that we have is that the experience exists

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Not so, we can - through reason alone - arrive at lots of certainties.

Logic and inference are tools that allow this.

The law of non-contradiction is one such case.
 
You’re certain about experience because you experience experience?
We have higher order reasoning abilities. We can arrive at various things through logic and reason.
 
@SST Please read the example below and tell me if it demonstrates what you mean.

Ok, so they make an artificial intelligence that is able to behave like a human so well that it is indistinguishable from a real human. They say it is conscious and experiences what any other human experiences.
Only that can’t be known for certain. Because we can only be certain of our own experience. I can only believe another human experiences reality like I do because we are both human. But I can’t really be certain that another human experiences reality at all let alone the same as I do,
 
Of course you do. You are a skeptic. I have not met one yet who doesn’t have a problem with any argument for God’s existence. However this itself is not in any way a strike against the argument itself. I (and many others smarter than me - Edward Feser to name just one) have examined Aquinas`5 ways and come to the conclusion that they are good arguments for God’s existence, enough to convince a person. Or at least to give a person a rational basis for his belief. Yet they are not so overwhelming that they would take away a skeptic’s free will. And there are many other arguments for God’s existence. Not everyone will find every argument convincing. But there are enough arguments that most will find at least some convincing.

Certainty is a psychological phenomenon. And different people can have different levels of Certainty over the same set of facts or arguments regardless of how good they may be. An outright hardened skeptic may never have any Certainty about anything. Yet does he doubt his own doubts? It would be a philosophical assumption to assume that skepticism will lead you to the truth in every situation. In fact wouldn’t a skeptic need to doubt his own skepticism in order to be consistent?
 
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Kei said:
You’re certain about experience because you experience experience?

We have higher order reasoning abilities. We can arrive at various things through logic and reason.
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Yes. I can right now focus on my experience and experience them. I think you can do it with a little practice.
 
Benadam said:
@SST Please read the example below and tell me if it demonstrates what you mean.

Ok, so they make an artificial intelligence that is able to behave like a human so well that it is indistinguishable from a real human. They say it is conscious and experiences what any other human experiences.

Only that can’t be known for certain. Because we can only be certain of our own experience. I can only believe another human experiences reality like I do because we are both human. But I can’t really be certain that another human experiences reality at all let alone the same as I do,
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Yes, that is true that we can only deduce that experience is a thing that we human share but that is not what I intend to convey. What is the first thing that attach us to reality? Experience. That is why we cannot doubt experience but everything else.
 
fisherman_carl said:
Of course you do. You are a skeptic. I have not met one yet who doesn’t have a problem with any argument for God’s existence. However this itself is not in any way a strike against the argument itself. I (and many others smarter than me - Edward Feser to name just one) have examined Aquinas`5 ways and come to the conclusion that they are good arguments for God’s existence, enough to convince a person. Or at least to give a person a rational basis for his belief. Yet they are not so overwhelming that they would take away a skeptic’s free will. And there are many other arguments for God’s existence. Not everyone will find every argument convincing. But there are enough arguments that most will find at least some convincing.
Click to expand...
An argument must be perfect to convince a skeptic. A good argument, or ok argument doesn’t really cut.
fisherman_carl said:
Certainty is a psychological phenomenon. And different people can have different levels of Certainty over the same set of facts or arguments regardless of how good they may be. An outright hardened skeptic may never have any Certainty about anything. Yet does he doubt his own doubts? It would be a philosophical assumption to assume that skepticism will lead you to the truth in every situation. In fact wouldn’t a skeptic need to doubt his own skepticism in order to be consistent?
Click to expand...
What I am arguing is that experience is the first thing which attach us to reality. Therefore it cannot be doubt. The content of our experience could be all unreal or lie.
 
STT said:
es. I can right now focus on my experience and experience them. I think you can do it with a little practice.
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But there’s no certainty about your experience, except that that is how you experienced it.

This is plainly flawed.
When we ask an old man about his experiences somewhere, it is quite possible it will not be what actually happened, but still he experiences it.
 
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