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What is Reality?

Heyo

Veteran Member
But instead of mathematics, let's talk about colors. In your perceived reality, what evidence do we have that the color blue looks the same to me as it does to you?
That is a question about perception, not reality. So long as you agree that you are measuring light of roughly the wavelength 450 nm, it is blue.
 

ValdresRose

Member
We can be absolutely certain of only one thing: The Universe is in constant change!

We can stand on that as our reality. Assume that everything else in our experience is an illusion and try to check it out if it applies to our life condition. The clock on the wall appears to be matter, or mass, until we examine it with quantum reality, the "time" representing the clock for us is an illusion.

When we realize the reality of our situation; "everything is in constant change", we no longer need to feel as if we are sinking in quick sand, or our personality feels like swiss cheese. We have something solid to stand on and we can build from that reality.
 

ChristineM

"Be strong", I whispered to my coffee.
Premium Member
Except we can't have one without the other. "Actual existence" is an "ideological notion".

What? I know, how about you tell the OED they are wrong...

Fyi, the universe would exist whether you thought about it or not

"Having existence" is a tautological vacuum, and, "or substance" is philosophical materialism. Neither of which define "reality" beyond their own bias.

We are talking reality, science of the natural world, the laws of thermodynamics, things that exist, can be observed, can be measured. We are not talking about thinking about it
 

PureX

Veteran Member
Fyi, the universe would exist whether you thought about it or not.
"The universe" is a human concept. It does not exist until we conjure it up in our minds. The same goes for "existence". There is no "is" until we perceive it.
We are talking reality, science of the natural world, the laws of thermodynamics, things that exist, can be observed, can be measured. We are not talking about thinking about it
"Reality, science of the natural world, the laws of thermodynamics, things that exist, can be observed, can be measured" are us thinking about it. These are all ideas in our minds generated as an internal response to external stimuli.
 

ChristineM

"Be strong", I whispered to my coffee.
Premium Member
"The universe" is a human concept. It does not exist until we conjure it up in our minds. The same goes for "existence". There is no "is" until we perceive it.
"Reality, science of the natural world, the laws of thermodynamics, things that exist, can be observed, can be measured" are us thinking about it. These are all ideas in our minds generated as an internal response to external stimuli.

Wow,,reality just wow.

This universe has existed for around 13.8 billion years. Humans about 2 million years
 

George-ananda

Advaita Vedanta, Theosophy, Spiritualism
Premium Member
In Advaita Vedanta (Hindu) philosophy 'Brahman Alone is Real'.

The universe is then likened to a dream/play/drama of Brahman with its relative realities when viewed from relative perspectives.
 

PureX

Veteran Member
Wow,,reality just wow.

This universe has existed for around 13.8 billion years. Humans about 2 million years
I find it weirdly amusing that you really cannot comprehend that without our cognition of existence, nothing "exists". The universe has no "age" until we humans apply our concept of time passing, to it. There is no "being and non-being" until the binary (compare/contrast) mechanisms of the human mind tries to cognate the fact of it's own cognition, creating the imaginary category of "non-being", or "non-existence" to compare and contrast it's own "being" and "existence", to.

There is no "reality" until the human brain conjures it up. There is only indistinct, insignificant, moot phenomenon.
 

ChristineM

"Be strong", I whispered to my coffee.
Premium Member
I find it weirdly amusing that you really cannot comprehend that without our cognition of existence, nothing "exists". The universe has no "age" until we humans apply our concept of time passing, to it. There is no "being and non-being" until the binary (compare/contrast) mechanisms of the human mind tries to cognate the fact of it's own cognition, creating the imaginary category of "non-being", or "non-existence" to compare and contrast it's own "being" and "existence", to.

There is no "reality" until the human brain conjures it up. There is only indistinct, insignificant, moot phenomenon.


I find it weird that you think humans are needed to think reality into existence. Reality does not need you or anyone else to think it into existence, it exists, thats why it's real.
 

PureX

Veteran Member
I find it weird that you think humans are needed to think reality into existence. Reality does not need you or anyone else to think it into existence, it exists, thats why it's real.
We don't think it "into" existence. We define it as existing. Phenomena is phenomena; indistinct, valueless, and moot. "Reality" is what we make of it, in our minds. That which exists beyond and apart from human cognition is ... "_____".
 

ChristineM

"Be strong", I whispered to my coffee.
Premium Member
We don't think it "into" existence. We define it as existing. Phenomena is phenomena; indistinct, valueless, and moot. "Reality" is what we make of it, in our minds. That which exists beyond and apart from human cognition is ... "_____".


The word yes, the fact no.
 

Ponder This

Well-Known Member
In another thread, the phrase "respect for reality" was used. So what is 'reality?' Who determines what it is?

Reality is commonly defined as the sum or aggregate of all that is real. Okay, so let's go from there...

What is real? Who definitively determines what is real? Can we accept "existing or occurring as fact, i.e., not imaginary or supposed" as a working definition? Supposing we can...

Can what is real only be determined objectively? Does everyone have to agree to what existing or occurring as fact?

Or is what is real subjective? Can something exist or occur to a person or group of people (or other beings for that matter) but not be objectively evident to others?

Discuss.

I think that the phrase "respect for reality" suggests to me something like "common sense" in that there is a collection of real, not merely imaginary, truths that a person can either be consistent with or not be consistent with. Respect could mean due regard or consideration.

I suspect that the phrase is being used to indicate that some particular thing or things is real and should be considered. I suspect the context of the phrase would indicate what those are and, if not, then perhaps a clarifying question would reveal what. The context could also potentially indicate if this was an abstract disembodied consideration of "reality", but then the utility of the remark is much less because it does not refer to any particular thing or things and might even refer to things merely imagined to be real.

In other words, just because someone makes a statement categorizing a thing or things as "reality" does not mean those things are real, but rather that he considers them to be real. And I suspect that "respect for reality" is a suggestion that the other person also consider them as real.
 

Ponder This

Well-Known Member
Also consider the following meme:

uses-special-effects-no-respect-for-reality.jpg


The suggestion here is that things have been presented that do not reflect a real experience.
 

Heyo

Veteran Member
I find it weird that you think humans are needed to think reality into existence. Reality does not need you or anyone else to think it into existence, it exists, thats why it's real.
Don't argue with a solipsist online. You can't punch them in the face to show them reality.
 

blü 2

Veteran Member
Premium Member
In another thread, the phrase "respect for reality" was used. So what is 'reality?' Who determines what it is?

Reality is commonly defined as the sum or aggregate of all that is real. Okay, so let's go from there...

What is real? Who definitively determines what is real? Can we accept "existing or occurring as fact, i.e., not imaginary or supposed" as a working definition? Supposing we can...

Can what is real only be determined objectively? Does everyone have to agree to what existing or occurring as fact?

Or is what is real subjective? Can something exist or occur to a person or group of people (or other beings for that matter) but not be objectively evident to others?

Discuss.
Some time ago I gave some thought to this question. It was Descartes who pointed out that some of our ideas can't be shown to be true without first assuming they're true, so they're assumptions, and they're only reasoned positions in the sense that pragmatic empiricism based on them works.

I make three such assumptions ─
that a world exists external to me;
that my senses are capable of informing me of that world; and
that reason is a valid tool.​
(You'll notice that everyone here implicitly shares at least the first two, and much of the time the third as well.)

So "reality" means "external reality", that's to say the world external to the self, which we know about through our senses (often as extended by our instruments). Other expressions meaning "reality" are "nature", "the realm of the physical sciences", and more.

Who definitively determines what is real? The best opinion of the most expert minds at any time, is one answer. Thus until 2012 the Higgs boson was a hypothetical particle, and since then, because the evidence from CERN reaches the standard set for such experiments (which I think is one chance in more than a million of being wrong, but don't quote me), it's been real.

But I follow the correspondence definition of "truth", namely that truth is a quality of statements and that a statement is true to the extent that it corresponds with / accurately reflects objective reality. So judges and juries, stock analysts, just about everyone (Republicans excepted for the time being) is interested in determining what is true, that is, what is and what is not an accurate statement about (objective) reality.
 
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Salty Booger

Royal Crown Cola (RC)
In another thread, the phrase "respect for reality" was used. So what is 'reality?' Who determines what it is?

Reality is commonly defined as the sum or aggregate of all that is real. Okay, so let's go from there...

What is real? Who definitively determines what is real? Can we accept "existing or occurring as fact, i.e., not imaginary or supposed" as a working definition? Supposing we can...

Can what is real only be determined objectively? Does everyone have to agree to what existing or occurring as fact?

Or is what is real subjective? Can something exist or occur to a person or group of people (or other beings for that matter) but not be objectively evident to others?

Discuss.
It might be best to first establish "Who Am I."
 

Clara Tea

Well-Known Member
Existentialism - Wikipedia

The link above is about existentialism (a branch of philosophy). As a philosophy minor, I learned that philosophy originally was the study of all knowledge (physics, math, existence, acquisition of knowledge, etc.). Many branches of philosophy broke off and became their own science or art. Even today, most doctoral degrees are doctorates of philosophy (spelled PhDs).

Existentialism, among other things, is the study of what is real. It even questions whether or not we are real.

Rene Descarte said "I think, therefore I am." I would like to put on my tombstone "I don't think, therefore I am not." Horace Greeley wrote "go west young man." But if we exist in the west that's putting the Horace before Descarte.
 
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