I’m reminded of 1984, in a quotation I’ve had occasion to post before:
‘You do not exist,’ said O’Brien.
Once again the sense of helplessness assailed him. He knew, or he could imagine, the arguments which proved his own nonexistence; but they were nonsense, they were only a play on words. Did not the statement, ‘You do not exist’, contain a logical absurdity? But what use was it to say so? His mind shrivelled as he thought of the unanswerable, mad arguments with which O’Brien would demolish him.
‘I think I exist,’ he said wearily. ‘I am conscious of my own identity. I was born and I shall die. I have arms and legs. I occupy a particular point in space. No other solid object can occupy the same point simultaneously.’
And like Woody Allen, I would prefer to achieve immortality by not dying.
I’m reminded of 1984, in a quotation I’ve had occasion to post before:
And like Woody Allen, I would prefer to achieve immortality by not dying.
This statement is self-contradictory as as its opening ‘I’m reminded’ implies that ‘I exist’.