There are 9 choices, 9 votes for Diemgordon's debate

Reality defined

"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away." --Philip K. Dick

Discuss.


  • How do we know the waking from the dream...

    _"Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistant one"_ ~ Albert Einstein

    How do we know the waking from the dream? The only answer is; we don't until we wake.

    This is what Plato, Descartes and countless others have said - we cannot perceive ultimate reality until we are outside reality. The empirical proof to this theory lies with quantum and atomic physics - what we perceive to be reality is in fact nothing like the ultimate reality we know to exist: e.g. we see a shiny silver metal box - but we know the metal box has nothing shiny or silver about it, ultimately - up close it is a storm of sub-atomic particles, and we only perceive it to be shiny and silver because of some other quality in the material that makes the IDEA of shiny and silver apparent to us.

    Similarly, science tells us that electrons exist in many places at once, but are never really in any of them - I have trouble searching for the language to describe that concept, let a lone trying to find anything in my immediate reality alike that electron.

    So doesn't this appear to mean that we know a reality to exist beyond what appears to be reality - atomic reality - that can have no concept of, it’s almost outside of us, outside of our experience?

    Let's take a different approach. Descartes and gang before claimed that the senses are part of the mental world which is only an *idea* of reality, not reality itself, which seems to correspond with our concept of apparent reality (shiny metal box) and atomic reality (non-sensical particles with no colour, shape or comprehensible position in space-time.)

    Betrand Russel (And please correct me if my details are a bit wobbly) had a different idea. He said, in layman’s terms;

    "Look dudes, it makes no sense to talk about this "external reality". It's like saying "what's outside the universe?" (as if what's outside the universe isn't Part of the universe - but doesn't the concept universe then break down?) - it's a nonsensical question. What reality is, what everything really is, is what WE perceive it to be. I know about everything around me because I am receiving SENSE DATA about it. The shiny metal box doesn’t need dimensions or matter for it to exist for me. It’s just a bundle of sense data. I only know about the universe through this sense data, and there is no other way I can possibly know about REALNESS. So we apply Ockam’s Razor to this theory (when faced with two theories, _the simplest explanation is the best._) and we are left with supposing THERE IS NO EXTRENAL WORLD. Boom.”

    There’s lots of opposition to this theory, and I haven’t prescribed it to you at its most convincing. But, although science may suggest there is a world “outside” our immediate reality, the classic Matrix idea, we have to be careful when exploring the idea of something outside the reality we think to be true, because we run into lots of logical knots.

    The other way to deal with it, is the way of the Scepticist – we don’t know, we can’t know, we can’t ever know, so shut up. (Remember Scepticists never get invited to parties and spend all their lives denying their own existence before spontaneously combusting.)

    Just a thought.

    Voted for by ennoia.
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  • Illusion

    "reality" is a favored illusion.

    Voted for by lili27.
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  • ...

    reality is perception

    Voted for by TygerSiren.
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  • Reality

    Reality is what doesn't go away when you stop believing in it. Also, people who ignore it or deny it have been known to get hurt by it in situations where others who were aware of it were better prepared.

    Voted for by Eye-Beam.
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  • MY TAKE

    MANY TRY TO FIND AN EXPLANATION TO EXTERNAL REALITY AND SUCH , WHEN WE CAN'T EVEN FIGURE OUR OWN REALITY OR TRUTH. IT IS WHATEVER WE PERCIEVE IT TO BE. MANY OF US LIVING IN OUR OWN WORLD, HENCE "BUBBLE". HOW DO WE DEFINE OUR OWN REALITY? THE ANSWER IS BY TAKING AN INTROSPECTING LOOK AT OUR OWN LIVES.

    Voted for by a new beginning.
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  • ~

    Reality is whatever you make it to be. What's real to me may not be real to you, so reality is something you've created through all the variables you've encountered and decided to believe or cling to.

    Voted for by anorexicmonkey.
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  • there is no reality, as we know it
    everything is subjective, when we experience something we taint its pure objectiveness with our perception. through internal filters designed by previous experiences... we can never see reality as it is, only as we think it could be.....
    Voted for by hypnorocker.
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  • Reality is in everyone's mind.
    Reality is in everyone's mind. It is built up by one's own experiences, perceptions and reasoning.
    Voted for by neverreturn.
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  • Reality of dreams
    I am impressed by your succinct and intelligent summary of ontology. BTW, its easy to tell the difference between dreaming and being awake. Dreams lack object constancy, i.e., if you look away from an object in a dream it will be slightly different when you re-examine it.
    Voted for by nanrek.
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