my philosophy homework. assess, criticize
//note that it is supposed to be limited to 400 words, i am 177 past that...
//so i just stopped when i realized it
//i'm too lazy to edit it
//Pg. 34 from Philosophy textbook.
“Life is but a dream”
How would you prove that it is not true?
//and my answer is:
What is a dream? A dream is quasi-consciousness when we are asleep. We would know that we were dreaming if we wake up from it, and then we wouldn’t have to ask if life is a dream, unless we think we can dream about dreaming. But what if it was in the middle of the day and we somehow lost our memory of our last immediate state of consciousness?
We don’t remember anything prior to birth. Unless we somehow lost our memory during our dream, that means we weren’t awake. How could be dreaming without first falling asleep? Of course, we might have never have been awake, and started out dreaming all along. But then asking the question if we are in a dream would be pointless.
Dreaming is a brain activity. When we are not dreaming we are conscious, when we are, we are unconscious. We don’t know we are dreaming when we are. When we wake up from a normal dream, we knew we were dreaming because we don’t then remember any immediate conscious experience. When we were young we didn’t know we were dreaming. It is something we learn, when we wake up and don’t remember anything right before waking up, and right after going to sleep the last night. The point is, that to realize that we have dreamt, we need to have memory. And that memory is shared for our dreams and our conscious experience. The transition between sleep and consciousness requires a physical brain, which generates both states of dreaming and waking and provides the memory they use. The physical brain has to be there to store memory of dream and wake.
Also, it is impossible to dream without memory. All our dreams are based on memories of our waking life (including the dreams we remembered). When we dream, the brain is basically consolidating our sensory perceptions and thoughts when we were awake.
Can we be dreaming our dreams when we dream about sleeping? Memories that dreams produce are not consciously accessible until we are awake. Memories are also not consciously recallable when we are dreaming. That by itself might be evidence enough that we are not dreaming. If our life is a dream, we would have to dream up memory. But dreaming of memory and its use during two dreamt brain states (dream and wake) is absurd. And dreaming of another consciousness is even more so.
Or is it all just coincidence, that we dream our waking hours and our dreams and they somehow are coherent? There is also the argument of coherence of our dream and waking life. When we dream, our dreams are based on memories of our conscious experience. When we go to sleep, and then awake the next day, we see that it was some experience when we were conscious that gave shape to the dream. If life is a dream, then we have to dream of consciousness and dreams. So where does the memories that give shape to the dream of life and the dream of dream come from? And why are the dream of life and the dream of dreams coherent? Why do we have to dream a dream (life-dream) where we dream (life-dream-dream) about the dream (life-dream)? Why not dream about experiences when we were really, conscious?
And do we think when we dream? We don’t. Dreams are just replays of brain activity when we were awake.
And so we can only prove if we are dreaming if we change brain states. One way is to wake up, if we cannot wait, then we can take drugs…
//so i just stopped when i realized it
//i'm too lazy to edit it
//Pg. 34 from Philosophy textbook.
“Life is but a dream”
How would you prove that it is not true?
//and my answer is:
What is a dream? A dream is quasi-consciousness when we are asleep. We would know that we were dreaming if we wake up from it, and then we wouldn’t have to ask if life is a dream, unless we think we can dream about dreaming. But what if it was in the middle of the day and we somehow lost our memory of our last immediate state of consciousness?
We don’t remember anything prior to birth. Unless we somehow lost our memory during our dream, that means we weren’t awake. How could be dreaming without first falling asleep? Of course, we might have never have been awake, and started out dreaming all along. But then asking the question if we are in a dream would be pointless.
Dreaming is a brain activity. When we are not dreaming we are conscious, when we are, we are unconscious. We don’t know we are dreaming when we are. When we wake up from a normal dream, we knew we were dreaming because we don’t then remember any immediate conscious experience. When we were young we didn’t know we were dreaming. It is something we learn, when we wake up and don’t remember anything right before waking up, and right after going to sleep the last night. The point is, that to realize that we have dreamt, we need to have memory. And that memory is shared for our dreams and our conscious experience. The transition between sleep and consciousness requires a physical brain, which generates both states of dreaming and waking and provides the memory they use. The physical brain has to be there to store memory of dream and wake.
Also, it is impossible to dream without memory. All our dreams are based on memories of our waking life (including the dreams we remembered). When we dream, the brain is basically consolidating our sensory perceptions and thoughts when we were awake.
Can we be dreaming our dreams when we dream about sleeping? Memories that dreams produce are not consciously accessible until we are awake. Memories are also not consciously recallable when we are dreaming. That by itself might be evidence enough that we are not dreaming. If our life is a dream, we would have to dream up memory. But dreaming of memory and its use during two dreamt brain states (dream and wake) is absurd. And dreaming of another consciousness is even more so.
Or is it all just coincidence, that we dream our waking hours and our dreams and they somehow are coherent? There is also the argument of coherence of our dream and waking life. When we dream, our dreams are based on memories of our conscious experience. When we go to sleep, and then awake the next day, we see that it was some experience when we were conscious that gave shape to the dream. If life is a dream, then we have to dream of consciousness and dreams. So where does the memories that give shape to the dream of life and the dream of dream come from? And why are the dream of life and the dream of dreams coherent? Why do we have to dream a dream (life-dream) where we dream (life-dream-dream) about the dream (life-dream)? Why not dream about experiences when we were really, conscious?
And do we think when we dream? We don’t. Dreams are just replays of brain activity when we were awake.
And so we can only prove if we are dreaming if we change brain states. One way is to wake up, if we cannot wait, then we can take drugs…
posted by zcer at 8:22 PM
8 Comments:
that's what the book says?not,bad,most of them i have read from someplace,now i am trying LUCID DREAMING!!!it's hard,until i get a little insomnia,because i have to think in order to dream,sounds cool??haha,i dream all day night,that's what im doing now.dreaming is now a fresh topic for me,because i m exploring the mysteries of dream,do you ever wonder,where you are during your sleep?
im afraid of sleeping,because my principle of THINK TO SLEEP.....
hey leave comment in my blogpost!
what? the question is from the book, but the answer is mine and was not based on it at all
i dun understand....
"Dreams are just replays of brain activity when we were awake."
Might be true, might not be true....but in my opinion, we humans still do not possess the ability to understand what dreams are, much less interpret them. hmm...
I mean, the stuff you find about dream interpretation online is just what other people THINK dreams are, it's all a bunch of crap! I think anyone can interpret their own dreams if they only knew how...
Not actually correct.
i have senses when i sleep.
if one has no sense while dreaming,
how could one wakes when the alarm rings, when he/she falls down(from where he/she sleep), when being splashed by water?
i remember there is logic in my dream.
my logic sense can easily overide my dream.
once, i dreamed.
and then i found something that is not logic.
i immediately thinks that i am dreaming.
then i opened my eyes.
they are working.
but i can't control my legs for a few seconds.
why?
there might be some chemicals stop the actual impulse sent by our organs, but instead,
the chemical send false impulses to our brain.
like the transistor,
only when the impulse is strong enough,
the chemical can't stop the impulse.
and this impulse go through the chemical and straight to our brain. (when the alarm rings, etcetera)
so we awake.
[everything is what i think how it works,
based on some readings]
so the memory is shared.
i agree.
yes of course it is coherent.
did you dreamt your house or any electrical appliences?
if you did so,
it means they are coherent.
how could a Stone Age people dreamt a electric fan and riding on a car, boarding on an airplane?
take the pill and you will know the reality, huh?
matrix? it is a joke.
Carfer CFE
damnit, you have seriously misunderstood what i wrote...
" Not actually correct.
i have senses when i sleep."
what? i never said you didnt. please be more careful
"yes of course it is coherent.
did you dreamt your house or any electrical appliences?
if you did so,
it means they are coherent.
how could a Stone Age people dreamt a electric fan and riding on a car, boarding on an airplane?"
you misunderstood the meaning of "coherence" there. what i meant was everything fits together, especially causality(cause and effect) and nothing absurd/illogical and no inconsistensies.
i didnt mean anachronisms there?!
"take the pill and you will know the reality, huh?
matrix? it is a joke."
again...
what i meant was, if dreaming is a brain state, then we can take drugs to change that brain state.
and...
"my logic sense can easily overide my dream.
once, i dreamed.
and then i found something that is not logic.
i immediately thinks that i am dreaming."
you have then woke up! you dont think when you dream.
sigh, why cant you properly criticize me???
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