just don't do what Descarte did--stop thinking. Once he did, he stopped existing
Why does empathy have to be linked to there being only one consciousness? It doesn't.
There is an objective reality. Here's why. Does the universe stop existing once you die? Of course not. I still exist, nevermind that I've lost three grandparents. When I die, the universe will still continue to exist. Furthermore, what sense does it make to exist in a world that is x years old, if you yourself are only less than x years old? My brother will live after I die. My children will. You will. You could say, as a counter, that I am just imagining them die, and that they never existed to begin with, except as a figment of my imagination. Well, how can I imagine my grandads experiences in the military? My grandmothers experience with kids? My brother's life while I'm not with him? WHy would I go to all the trouble of creating histories I know nothing about? I wouldn't. I don't know half the stuff my grandfather did, and I'll never know. And yet, he lived his own, complete, existence.
Point put simple--there is an objective reality. It exists because the universe has existed before and will after I live. It exists because others who live while I am alive have their own, complete, experiences, of which I will never know anything about. That last bit is important, because why would I, rationally that is, create so extensive a world I will never know?
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