Heyo
Veteran Member
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.
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What is Reality?
- Thread starter SalixIncendium
- Start date
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.
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.
What? I know, how about you tell the OED they are wrong...
Fyi, the universe would exist whether you thought about it or not
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
"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
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.
The universe is then likened to a dream/play/drama of Brahman with its relative realities when viewed from relative perspectives.
PureX
Veteran 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
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 ... "_____".
Ponder This
Well-Known Member
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:
The suggestion here is that things have been presented that do not reflect a real experience.
The suggestion here is that things have been presented that do not reflect a real experience.
Heyo
Veteran Member
Don't argue with a solipsist online. You can't punch them in the face to show them reality.
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.)that my senses are capable of informing me of that world; and
that reason is a valid tool.
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)
It might be best to first establish "Who Am I."
Reality is that which eludes those who can't figure out what is going on, and so invent a good story to compensate.
Salty Booger
Royal Crown Cola (RC)
What is "going on"?
Everything that is.
The fairies at the bottom of your garden, while they may be "going on" in your own mind, do not otherwise meet the definition of "that is." And therefore, they are not reality.
Salty Booger
Royal Crown Cola (RC)
Everything that is...don't you find that amazing? What about yourself? You are an is. Are you not amazing, too.
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.
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.