How do we know we exist

Existence itself is one of the greatest mysteries in life. If looked up in the dictionary the word exist means to be or have existence. Not a very helpful answer when you cannot know what existence is without knowing what it means to exist. Another perhaps less puzzling definition is to have being or reality. It is safe to assume that if you can read this you exist.

While that is not the most satisfactory of ways to judge whether you really exist, it does go a long way toward proving it. You know you exist. It is not a question of whether or not you are real. The question is how do you know? There is nothing that says, This completely proves existence. No matter what the argument by itself it can be an illusion.

The perception of existence my just be the sum off all the illusions. That in itself is an existence. The things that really prove existence are the five senses: sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch, the ability to think and reason, and emotions. That is how humans interact with the world. Each of the senses in combination with the ability to put together thoughts into a coherent pattern constantly reaffirms existence. After a while, the need to question reality fades away. You reach a point where existing is all the proof you need that you do exist.

If this argument leaves you with a slightly queasy feeling that the floor is about to fall away, do not worry, you are not alone. That makes existence so difficult to prove. You already know you do. You just do not know how you know it. The more you try to find real evidence the harder it gets to pinpoint what even counts as evidence for it. If physical perceptions are proof of existence, they prove to yourself that you exist. If you were to close your eyes in a quiet room, you could convince yourself you were anywhere in the world.

With no smells, no sounds, no visual clues, you would have no way of knowing what was around you. Therefore, you would have no way of knowing what did or did not exist. Of course, you could feel the floor, perhaps carpet, or tile, if you bumped into something, you could probably feel the texture of it. You might have some idea how big the object was if you tried to push on it. However, anything you lost contact with would cease to exist in your mind.

Simply put we know we exist because we are constantly receiving data from the world around us. Most of it we process without thinking about. Some of it makes us stop for a minute, when we expect something that does not happen. Every second there are thousands of little things going on that remind us that we are here and this is real. When thinking about them specifically they flit away making us unsure they were even there to begin with. The difficulty in pinning down proof makes people question existence. Learning to accept existence as something that just does not need proven, is the easiest way to prove it. We know we exist simply because we exist. It does not have to be anymore complicated than that.