Existence is a concept.

This is a problem since it is a word that is meant to encompass the totality of human consciousness of the self, since it is the self that 'exists'.

Underneath the weak framework of conceptual reality is the idea of nothing, a void. This is where you will find the actual existence, as this is what would go on were there no language to interpret it. No-thing is without meaning. Of course something would take place, but that something would not require human interpretation.

Existence is a coming into consciousness. If you were not aware of a slug in Antarctica then it would not exist to you since it had not come into your consciousness.

One might wonder how many degrees of existence there are. The more you try and understand a concept, the more language that is required, and the more understanding that is required in order to link the concepts all together. This is an exponential complexity of our human awareness!

Quite a lot could be written on the subject of existence. Unlike some of the esoterica on this site, everyone here presumably has some experience and could write about what existence is. Such discussions could easily get into some murky territory, even our respected competition, usually known for their endearing allegiance to "factuality" seems to be unable to keep the discussion on the topic of existence within the straight-and-narrow.

So, I am going to confine my discussion of existence to one facet, and am in a way almost using existence as just one example of another issue, the issue of constructivism. The more I learn about both education and philosophy, the more I appreciate the position that the world is not "just there" but is instead a result of conceptual filters on the world, caused by anything from neurological patterns to social indoctrination. I am also surprised how many naive realists there are, even amongst people who should know better. Of course, constructivism is not an easy position to convince people of, especially in its bastardized forms. You can not actually make the world go away or change forms by closing your ears and humming. So what is the most basic example of constructionism? Is there an example that gets to the basics of it, the way that KRS-One phrased the question of justice in America by asking "Can there really ever be justice on stolen land?"

Existence to me is a basic example of a concept (as the above poster phrased it), or better yet, a category. Existence is an in-built category that our minds filter the universe through. If this seems like an odd thing to say, take a look at about five objects in front of you and ask where there existence lays. Is the existence inside of them, like a tootsie roll inside a tootsie pop?. Could you dig apart objects and find inside of them, little particles of existence? And then, what would be left of the husk? Would it exist or not? Various and sundry objects around us are labeled as "existing", but what do these disparate objects have in common? The only answer really is that they can somehow interact with each other, and yet we can at least imagine an object that is unable to interact with other things yet still exists. So then, it is hard to say what the things that share this common concept "existence" really have in common. When investigated, the taken for granted concept of "existence" makes no more sense than the social concepts that make us live the way that we do.

As I said, I don't mean that just because "existence" is a concept that it isn't real. I just mean to say that once that concept is questioned, any other concept can be very easily questioned.

Keyword: It

It doesn't matter if it is now, because back then it wasn't, so therefore it might as well be. That is, whatever "it" is.

The point is that everything in this human world is all made up of ideas - that is, ideas to us. Referring to "it" to describe something we can't necessarily grasp. What really matters? The past? The past, being "it"? But if the past is really back then, and we can't reach it, then it doesn't exist. Neither does the future, because it has not happened yet. All that exists is now. So what is "it"?

What exactly is controlling everything? For something to be in front, there surely has to be something in back, much like time. But whatever is 'behind' time is no longer real, and whatever is 'in front' of time does not exist yet. Who/what determines how everything falls into place? Could it be a God? Am I this body, or is this body merely what I control?

I am something inside of a body.
A soul, a spirit. Trapped. Bounded.

What am I, and what am I here for?
What exactly is a purpose?

Has rule and culture made an illusion of what life should be? If life is something within in itself, then what is a human to judge how to live it? We are ruled by people, who are constructed of the same chemical structures that all human beings have to be, so why are we stuck in this illusion that everything must be done the "right" way, when a "right" way doesn't truly exist?


It's all the same.

-To make music.
-To make money.
-To find someone to love.
-To love yourself.
-To learn about the world.
-To fill minds with knowledge.
-To see the world.
-To write.
-To make art for others to appreciate.
-To appreciate the art of others.
-To help our family, to help ourselves.
-To find peace in spirituality.
-To find a way. Any way.
-To learn?
-To give.
-To accept.
-To think.
-Success.

1.) Failure.
2.) Success.
3.) Failure.
4.) Success.
5.) Failure.
6.) Success.
7.) Failure.


- Do you feel that moving from point A to point B will remove point A's baggage?
- Lots of rides. A lot less living.
- There is comfort in forgetting.
- Edifice + adulteration + golden car + suit + tarmac
- Sweatshop in center

- Centre of the world
- Spiraling discs, vinyl stars


- Through the hole, to the top.
- Through the top, to the bottom.


- At the bottom.

- Stay where you are

Ex*ist"ence (?), n. [Cf. F. existence.]

1.

The state of existing or being; actual possession of being; continuance in being; as, the existence of body and of soul in union; the separate existence of the soul; immortal existence.

The main object of our existence. Lubbock.

2.

Continued or repeated manifestation; occurrence, as of events of any kind; as, the existence of a calamity or of a state of war.

The existence therefore, of a phenomenon, is but another word for its being perceived, or for the inferred possibility of perceiving it. J. S. Mill.

3.

That which exists; a being; a creature; an entity; as, living existences.

 

© Webster 1913.

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