"turtoni" fastmail.net> wrote in message
news:1rlo0l.p7.19.1@news.alt.net...

No one has been able to solve this conundrum for me. Truth is, when I die,
the world will vanish. This leads to solipsist kind of thinking, which
every authority dismisses out of hand. I am sure this is the madness of
some Roman Ceasar's who thought themselves to be gods.

But I cannot prove to myself that the world will continue when my
consciousness is not here to realize it's existence. It is an extension of
the tree not heard crashing in the forest etc. I think this may be a major
demarcation in philosophic conclusions by way of how any one of us define
'existence'. Is it the material environment within which we live...or...is
it our awareness of that environment? Perhaps I make 'existence' synonymous
to 'life' or something. Most would argue that 'consciousness' is a function
of existence, and not visa versa. My own thinking concludes that existence
becomes a 'null and void' once consciousness is gone. There is no way to
prove this...since every proof will be a function of our consciousness, in
the here and now, while we 'exist'.

There is perhaps one way around this, where consciousness is seen as a
extension of our environment, and not seperated. But that could justify a
gaian kind of awareness...or something pantheistic.