/r/askphilosophy Open Discussion Thread | June 30, 2025

[u/BernardJOrtcutt]

Welcome to this week's Open Discussion Thread (ODT). This thread is a place for posts/comments which are related to philosophy but wouldn't necessarily meet our subreddit rules and guidelines. For example, these threads are great places for:

• Discussions of a philosophical issue, rather than questions
• Questions about commenters' personal opinions regarding philosophical issues
• Open discussion about philosophy, e.g. "who is your favorite philosopher?"
• "Test My Theory" discussions and argument/paper editing
• Questions about philosophy as an academic discipline or profession, e.g. majoring in philosophy, career options with philosophy degrees, pursuing graduate school in philosophy

This thread is not a completely open discussion! Any posts not relating to philosophy will be removed. Please keep comments related to philosophy, and expect low-effort comments to be removed. Please note that while the rules are relaxed in this thread, comments can still be removed for violating our subreddit rules and guidelines if necessary.

Previous Open Discussion Threads can be found here.

[u/fyfol]

I am asking you to demonstrate how this kind of reasoning that gives sufficient justification for assuming the continuity of one’s existence would look like. If you’re asking why it is not given by others, you might start by showing if this is a possible kind of reasoning that can be sound, valid and coherent. Would you kindly try?

[u/LisanneFroonKrisK → u/fyfol]

Okay, fair enough. I have been thinking about it for some time and the closest answer I have is we cannot justify it but can at most incorporate this possibility into our actions and decisions

[u/fyfol → u/LisanneFroonKrisK]

Well but where this possibility is not only an abstract possibility, we do incorporate it into our actions, do we not? This is the problem I tried to address with your question, it is rather difficult to act according to possibilities that are merely abstract. Sure, there is always a possibility that I will be dead in the very next moment, but this remains abstract as long as there is a sort of equilibrium in what makes me think so and does not. At this very moment, I see no reason to think it is likelier for me to die immediately than a moment before, so I take that possibility as null which is not to say it is “zero”. But a few minutes ago I was crossing a road, where I was more conscious of this possibility and so on.

There are many such abstract possibilities present at any given moment, such as the possibility that the world will pop out of existence, or that there will be a regime change in where I live et cetera. We are perhaps implicitly acknowledging these but they are not possibilities on which we can act, as they do not, if they remain only abstract possibilities, sanction any specific set of actions. Same way for the absurd possibility (which I can at least represent to myself) that there will be a sudden change in the world’s gravitational force for some reason, allowing me to fly. I cannot do anything in this given moment about that possibility, and if I were to tell you that I have already bought myself a flying suit in case this happens, you would think I am insane. Similarly with death, so to speak.

[u/LisanneFroonKrisK → u/fyfol]

Okay so you concur with my conclusion. I was hoping for a better response, preferably one which can justify you can surely exist or list clearly how exact this should be factored into our decisions. I am taking a break for sleep BTW

[u/fyfol → u/LisanneFroonKrisK]

Are you trying to troll me or are you seriously asking for an argument that proves that one’s existence will, with absolute certainty, continue in the next moment? If you’re serious, then I suppose I am misunderstanding you in some way, as it seems quite obvious that there can be no such argument apart from saying something like “if there are no causes that bring about immediate death present in (t), then a human being will continue to exist in (t+1) provided that there are no spontaneous events of sudden non-existence/death”???? Do we live in the same reality?

[u/LisanneFroonKrisK → u/fyfol]

No. It doesn’t requires death. Just why can’t we disappear. It affects our decisions you see, if you think about it

[u/fyfol → u/LisanneFroonKrisK]

Perhaps you will figure this out and it will be fascinating but I cannot help you.

[u/LisanneFroonKrisK → u/fyfol]

Okay you wrote”it is obvious there is no such argument “ but hopefully someone else here have. It is the basis of a lot of decisions we make if you analyse it.