Is anything real?

[Akivah]

Is there anything which is provable? Is anything real?

 

[Willamena]

Is there anything which is provable? Is anything real?

If there isn't, then is that real?

 

[nilsz]

My personal perspective is that nothing can be proven absolutely except perhaps for our immediate sensation, because all sensation can hypothetically have been manipulated so that it does not reflect reality. We may have false memories, we may live in a simulated reality, and our perception of this moment's past and continuation may all be artificial.

Is this reason to act in any way other than what your convictions would dictate?

I think not. It just takes time to get comfortable with it.

 

[nazz]

Is there anything which is provable? Is anything real?

That's really two separate questions. I know I exist and I know my experiences are real (to me). But I can't prove that to anyone else.

 

[Caladan]

Is there anything which is provable? Is anything real?

That's a bit vague isn't it? If you want to do a comparative study of the factual content of different fields, claims, doctrines... This doesn't really help to build any direction.

 

[roger1440]

Is there anything which is provable? Is anything real?

"I think, therefore I am." René Descartes

 

[Contemplative Cat]

MU. No answer for that

 

[Falvlun]

Is there anything which is provable? Is anything real?

Supposedly math is.

As for your other question, I am pro-reality. I have no reason to assume that reality doesn't exist. Nor do I have a reason to assume that the way I experience reality is incorrect. Yes, it is possible and probable that my senses do not tell me the whole story. But the part they tell is reliable.

 

[Contemplative Cat]

It really depends on what you consider to be real.
What you can sense and is thus relative, or what is universal and thus absolute.

The world is both real and unreal. But it is contradictory to say things both are & are not.

Trully it is MU. no truthful answer for thus question.

 

[bobhikes]

Is there anything which is provable? Is anything real?

If you can prove you are real then you can prove things are real to you. You will never be able to prove it to others, they must prove it to themselves.

 

[Twilight Hue]

Is there anything which is provable? Is anything real?

Well. We need some fake stuff first.
For comparison.

 

[Quintessence]

"I think, therefore I am."
René Descartes

Can I confess that I despise that saying?
(and also think much of the rest of this guy's philosophies are rubbish, but in particular this one)

Kumar should be mandatory reading in American high schools or something:

'I think, therefore I am' (cogito, ergo sum), proclaimed Rene Descartes. This one phrase describes the direction of Western science, philosophy, politics and the social order. When I first heard it, I was puzzled by Cartesian logic; in India we have been speaking of the dissolution and even the nonexistence of the self for many centuries. But here was an eminent European philosopher basing the very foundation of existence on the self!

As I learnt more about Western culture, I realised how Cartesian dualism was an essential feature of a thought process which divided mind and matter, separated soul and body and looked at the world as a collection of objects to be analysed, compartmentalised, classified, and controlled. This Cartesian subject-object dualism or mind-matter split has become the dominant paradigm of Western culture.

It is interesting to note that Descartes had his philosophical insight while literally sitting in a stove, in an isolated and lonely place, whereas the Buddah had his enlightenment sitting under a tree, by a river, observing nature. No wonder the Buddah saw reality as 'co-dependent arising', which could be roughly translated as "Only Connect'.

Descartes attracted everybody's attention because he was the fisrt philosopher to bring scientific methodology into philosophical investigation. The starting point of the Cartesian enquiry is to doubt, which was a useful tool at a time when questioning was quashed and blind beliefs imposed. But Cartesian doubt went too far - the baby was thrown out with the bath water.

My upbringing was rooted in faith and in trust. Descartes discarded trust altogether, and a new dogma of doubt and then dualism became the dominant paradigm of his thinking, and later of Western culture.

Excerpted from You are, Therefore I am: A Declaration of Dependence.

We should be far more certain of the rest of reality existing given our dependence on it. Cogito, ergo sum is so $#@ backwards.

 

[Tarheeler]

Can I confess that I despise that saying?
(and also think much of the rest of this guy's philosophies are rubbish, but in particular this one)

Kumar should be mandatory reading in American high schools or something:


Excerpted from You are, Therefore I am: A Declaration of Dependence.

We should be far more certain of the rest of reality existing given our dependence on it. Cogito, ergo sum is so $#@ backwards.

Yeah, I'm not a big fan of Descartes, but his saying is a good answer to the OP; it was the same question that spawned it. If i remember it correctly, Descartes asked himself the same question, and, through his process, decided that the only thing he could actually verify as existing was his mind. Everything else could a fabrication of it.

 

[Enai de a lukal]

Is there anything which is provable?

Sure. Depends on what you need for proof, but yeah, we can prove things. If someone tells you they don't believe you can hit a golf ball 200 yards, you can prove it by hitting the golf ball 200 yards.

Is anything real?

What do you mean by "real"?

 

[Akivah]

We may have false memories, we may live in a simulated reality, and our perception of this moment's past and continuation may all be artificial. Is this reason to act in any way other than what your convictions would dictate?

I think not. It just takes time to get comfortable with it.

I like it. All may be illusion, but we act in accordance of it.

 

[Saint Frankenstein]

My personal perspective is that nothing can be proven absolutely except perhaps for our immediate sensation, because all sensation can hypothetically have been manipulated so that it does not reflect reality. We may have false memories, we may live in a simulated reality, and our perception of this moment's past and continuation may all be artificial.

Is this reason to act in any way other than what your convictions would dictate?

I think not. It just takes time to get comfortable with it.

Yes, that is how I see it too. All we have are our own subjective experiences.

 

[NobodyYouKnow]

Well. We need some fake stuff first.
For comparison.

Best answer given.

Everything is just as real as we are.

 

[Sunstone]

Is there anything which is provable? Is anything real?

Provable and real are two separate questions. The laws of thought are provable, as is most of logic and mathematics.

As for what is real, that involves metaphysical speculations that no perfectly sane person would indulge in, in my humble opinion.

 

[sandandfoam]

As for what is real, that involves metaphysical speculations that no perfectly sane person would indulge in, in my humble opinion.

Madness has its attraction

 

[sandandfoam]

Is there anything which is provable? Is anything real?

From my perspective everything I perceive to be real is real. Furthermore, I do not believe anyone has access to objectivity. It is an illusion.
Human beings are trapped in subjectivity.