Quote:
Originally Posted by Steve Pavlina  You don't need to prove it; trying to prove a lens makes no sense. You can simply pick it up and use it to explore how it works. |
If you try to prove a lens, you will want to look at it. This leads you to the necessity of proving your eyes.
Which will lead you to, say, gently touching them with your fingers. This leads you to the necessity of proving your fingers.
Finally you will realise that all your sensory data can only be proven by your own mental interpretation of those perceptions.
Which leads you to the necessity of proving your own consciousness. You then have to turn your consciousness upon itself, that is, you need to use your own consciousness to study your own consciousness.
This is known as meditation. Taken far enough, it leads you to conclude that reality is illusion.
That includes the self. And life. And death. (Not to mention all the "others", who "exist" only because the "self" exists).
So Nozick's argument, and Rand's own theory, become meaningless.
Consciousness is all there is.
Huh?