Past, Present and Future

[--Pete]

Hi,

Love your post.

Re: the past:: I might believe that the "past" exists because I have memories of it, or I have evidence of actions I previously took. However, these are not evidence that a persistent "past" exists, they are only evidence of my belief, or at the most, evidence that the frames of reference that I remember did exist at one time.

This topic comes up all the time and yet there never seems to be any definite answer given, or maybe even possible.

Descartes has given an argument which appears irrefutable as to the existence of *an* individual. But is that individual you, or me, or somebody else (personally, I think it might be a cat)? Kant (and others) has shown that we only know what we know through our senses. But since we only know of our senses through themselves, then we actually 'know' nothing. More correctly, we cannot prove anything beyond our individual existence. Hence the famous final exam question, "Prove the existence of this chair." with its only correct answer, "What chair?"

With or without (although 'with' is easier) a supreme being, it is possible to speculate that the universe came into existence an arbitrary short interval ago -- whether 5000 years or a nanosecond doesn't matter. Everything we 'know' from before then is just part of that creation process. All we have to save us from this is Occam's razor.

So, ultimately one must pick the assumptions under which he'll live. An objective, external universe is one of mine. But I recognize it is a belief, not a fact.

--Pete