Your definition of existence and reality?

[Krishwag]

in your opinion, what is the definition of existance? how can something be said to "exist", or be said to be "real"? what are the qualities of something you perceive as "real"?

in my opinion, if you say that that something is real if you can taste it, if you can touch it, if you can see it, then your definition of reality is merely the signals you interpriet with your brain, and therefore coulden't your whole reality be a fabrication, isn't that possible? nay, probable?

anyway, don't get intimidated, let's just get some thinking going :jointsmile:

I'm up for learning a bit too.

Krishwag Reviewed by Krishwag on 09-20-2007. Your definition of existence and reality? in your opinion, what is the definition of existance? how can something be said to "exist", or be said to be "real"? what are the qualities of something you perceive as "real"? in my opinion, if you say that that something is real if you can taste it, if you can touch it, if you can see it, then your definition of reality is merely the signals you interpriet with your brain, and therefore coulden't your whole reality be a fabrication, isn't that possible? nay, probable? anyway, don't get Rating: 5

[afghooey]

Maybe the question shouldn't be whether anything is real, but whether it's real in the way that you think it is.

[beachguy in thongs]

This reminds me of a Rush song:

I am born.
I am me.
I am new.
I am free.
I'm together.
I'm apart.
I'm forever,
at the start.

Still, I am.

[Krishwag]

yeah but is it real if we can't experience it? i am not talking about god or anything, but what is there were things that could be proven to exist (through quantum science and such), but we could never percieve in our lifetimes, like alternate dementions?

[Reefer Rogue]

Let us think, we are always thinking I think therefore I am. At the cogito we can begin. I know i exist because i am thinking. What is real? Here are my hands, that i type with, i know them to be real and under my control, not under control of an alien or demonic monstrosity. Do we percieve objects directly or indirectly, through sense data? Is red, really red?

[Earthy Dank]

Its so easy to get caught up in trying to perceive the unknown. I tend to think reality is a condition we (our subconsious) create ourselves. If by real you mean we can taste it, touch it, and see it. How do you know what you are actually seeing, tasting, or touching is real? How do you know it is not an image or "simulated sense" created by our brains? We see color but that is really just light reflection off the surface of what is there and depending on which spectrums of light that object absorbs/reflects is the color we see. How o we know that color exists? Reality is something that our brains cannot fully perceive which is why it is such a vague thing. And does something have to be real to exist? Are ideas in your head real? Are hallucinations real? I mean if you see them.. taste them.. hear them.. would that make it based in reality. I have thought about this most of my life and have concluded that there is either no answer or to know the true answer would crush everything thats you know. Ignorance is bliss... But who knows. The unknown is a mysterious and scary thing. If the truth was devastating would you still want to know? Say we weren't "real" would you just go on with your life as if nothing changed?

[DSX 1]

It is difficult to define reality as it is mainly based on our perception of the world around us, I think therefore i am

[WeedTillDeath]

To me reality can be studied in a lab. Take for example quantum physics: Quantum scientists will tell you that if you claim to know anything about quantum physics you really know nothing about quantum, however it is still studied in a lab-proving its reality. Gravity and magnetism can be studied in a lab. All things we can't see but know exist. Not to say there aren't things we haven't discovered yet. But I certainly am not going to believe it until its discovered and studied.

[Stoner Shadow Wolf]

existance is a concept, reality is a concept, life is a concept.
we are the deffenitions of these concepts.

we live within the concept of infinity, existance, life, and reality; just a part of the infinite all, a part of the whole.

[afghooey]

Let us think, we are always thinking I think therefore I am. At the cogito we can begin. I know i exist because i am thinking. What is real? Here are my hands, that i type with, i know them to be real and under my control, not under control of an alien or demonic monstrosity. Do we percieve objects directly or indirectly, through sense data? Is red, really red?

There is thought. Is that the beginning? Let's consider this. There is information. A flimsy concept, but for the purposes of the discussion it will do. On one level, reality is information. It does not exist as sights, sounds, colors, smells, or tactile objects. There is awareness. This awareness is a reflection of the 'information' level of reality; information is passed through the body's senses and is reflected into the brain by electrical signals. These signals are filtered immensely, and then reconstructed into a form that can be percieved; as electrical signals are reconstructed into images and sound that are percieved when a TV is flicked on.

It is at this level that information becomes what is commonly called 'reality'; sights, sounds, smells, color, texture, space, lines, borders, etc. Then this perception is reflected and filtered again into concepts and constructs, into thoughts and also, more abstractly, into emotions. Often, thoughts are further filtered and simplified into symbols known as language.

Thoughts are reflections of reflections; words reflections of reflected reflections. Throughout all of this, the different levels of reality remain intact and exist simultaneously. Thoughts exist on the level of unfiltered information, as well as on the level which they are percieved. The words being taken off of this page and re-structured into concepts exist simultaneously as thought and information.

Now, what I'm driving at is this: What gives the impression that any level of reality, whether filtered or unfiltered, is possesed by something called 'I'? What is this 'I' that that the existence of thought assumedly proves the existence of? Is 'I' made up of the reflections themselves? Or, perhaps, is 'I' the filtration system? What has us convinced that 'perception' is different from 'perceiver'? Where exactly does this separation take place?