Quote Originally Posted by 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?
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?
afghooey Reviewed by afghooey on . 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