Discussion - The External World

Thinkers and Drinkers. The topic this week is The External World. We’ll meet at one of the tables at Verboten North Brewpub. I’ll put a small (Space Force) flag on the table so you know where to go. Verboten has great beer and food as well. Some questions to ponder before the meeting:

1. What is the external world?
2. Is the mind part of the external world?
3. Are you currently in the external world, i.e., are you instead dreaming right now?
4. Is the external world really as it appears, or different than it appears?
5. How can we know for sure that the external world exists?
6. Are we in a simulation? How could we ever know either way?
7. Is having contact with the external world valuable? Would life in a simulation be somehow worse even if it was an exact copy of your current life?
8. Is there a significant connection between the external world and normativity or morality? Should you be moral in your dreams?
9. Is reality constituted by the external world world in full?
10. Are other people and other minds part of the external world?
11. What are non-real things?
12. Do we have any obligations toward non-real things, such as virtual people?