Metaphysics Debate

Hello, we'll take this one at a time… "Okay, a lucid dream is not life. I don't know about you, but I don't spend all my time in what I perceive to be a dream (lucid or not). Life was defined as the world we are perceiving now, the one with this argument on debate.org." I should like to remind my opponent that the topic of this debate is: "If life is really but a dream, then we should still live it like it is reality". With this topic, we must comply with the hypothetical possibility that "life" is a dream. I never claimed that this was a dream. I said that IF it were, than we should live as if it were one. When you sleep; when you dream, do you not THINK that you are in reality?! Are you not under the impression that it is reality? So then this is the perfect analogy, in every possible way for this present debate. So if I were to suddenly realize that I was in a dream right in this instance, I would be in a lucid dream. We must, given the subject of this debate treat the possibility that we are in a dream as a serious one. My opponent is veering off course and arguing against the notion of the very hypothetical that HE set forth, in the beginning. "if this is a dream it is certainly not lucid" All the "lucid" part means, is that you KNOW that you are in a dream. So, essentially, what my opponent is saying is: "If this is a dream, then I do not know that it is a dream"… And right you are! "Watch, I want 72 virgins! Waiting... waiting... waiting... waiting... damn. See no luck." You misunderstand me greatly. I am not advocating that we are in a dream. I am advocating that if we WERE in a dream, we should act as if it were one. I don't mean to repeat myself, but you are contradicting your own hypothetical. "Also, you said you had had a lucid dream, that lucid dream was outside of this perception, so obviously this perception is not a lucid dream." My opponent has again concluded that we are not in a dream, while this is completely irrelevant to the present debate. This debate is completely hypothetical. My opponent creates the topic as a conditional statement about if it were in a dream, not actually mentioning whether it is really a dream. Lucid dreaming as in sleep is solely an analogy I have used for this debate (and a quite proper one, might I mention). "When one is in a dream, they don't normally live like it is this life. In fact, if they become aware of it, they may take advantage of it. (Like the lucid dream my opponent mentioned)." The dream world has its own rules of reality created by your own mind. The same principle applies whether in a dream world where the norm may be to travel on flying bicycles, or the real world in which we have our own, equally absurd ways of living. "If this happens and one fails, they would have to face the consequences, (jail, isolation, death, etc.) and real or not, it would suck." Yes, but these things would be irrelevant if it were in a dream. You would just decide, "I'm not sitting in this electric chair", and *poof*. Of course, my opponent seems to be making the point that if what you thought was a dream was actually reality, there could be dire consequences. But this point is moot…the hypothetical of this debate is what we should do if it WERE a dream…not if it weren't. I ask to my opponent: But you admit that if it WERE a dream, and the consequences not being present, you would live as if it were a dream? "People shouldn't really do things that suck, so people shouldn't live life like a dream." Err…what? They shouldn't do things that suck…that's really your argument? Does flying suck? Well anyways, I really think that instead of trying to find ways to refute me, you should take my advice. I would like to remind the voters that the topic of this debate is how one should live if this WERE but a dream. It is a hypothetical topic and hypothetical only. My opponent has desperately reverted to trying to argue that we are NOT in fact in a dream, which is completely moot in a hypothetical debate. "The worst mistake that you can make is to think you're alive when really you're asleep in life's waiting room." -Character in the movie "Waking Life" -Emperor Harlan