Discussion - The External World
Details
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:
- What is the external world?
- Is the mind part of the external world?
- Are you currently in the external world, i.e., are you instead dreaming right now?
- Is the external world really as it appears, or different than it appears?
- How can we know for sure that the external world exists?
- Are we in a simulation? How could we ever know either way?
- 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?
- Is there a significant connection between the external world and normativity or morality? Should you be moral in your dreams?
- Is reality constituted by the external world world in full?
- Are other people and other minds part of the external world?
- What are non-real things?
- Do we have any obligations toward non-real things, such as virtual people?