Welcome to Gaia! ::

Actually, yea. I heard that too >< I wonder if it's true...

I think if you and a friend agreed you could fly the cliff you jumped over would not agree with the both of you back.

Semantics, names for things, do not change physical properties. An odd place for this line to come to mind, but the famous "What's in a name? A rose by any other name would smell as sweet," is true and fits here. Really, do you think somebody speaking in French sees something different when they look at what you call in English a "tree"?

Matter+Energy&Space+Time=Reality
Reality is a manifestation of the laws of duality (the yinyang and whatnot) There is certainly a physical universe consisting of matter of which we can see, smell, taste etc. But without some kind of driving power or force, matter sits motionless for all of time. Energy is the equally important component to determining what fills up the void of the vast chaos of the universe. Matter and energy are one and the same; they work together as you CANNOT find one without the other. We have been tought about the physical world and most of us seem to grasp that concept very well, but few understand the idea of the psychophysical world. Energy=Psychophysical world. Energy is not simply what you've been taught it is; it can be called a number of things, but I call it the psychophysical world in reference to human beings and the thought process, as all thinking really is is energy at work in our brains.
Now that we have a subject we need a medium. The subject has nowhere to exist without a medium. That medium is space and time. It is impossible to find a place in the universe at least on Einstein's spacetime model that is outside of these two parameters. Therefore it is the perfect medium when trying to explain the universe. Tadaa, there you go, the truth to reality revealed.

My smurfy friend, you have a very ambitious reality. My own "reality" is just the distorted model of yours, as seen thru a me-shaped filter from one place at a time.

A person is enclosed in a sparse room. Outside it's windy, and a little frightening. The temp inside is reasonable, food is made available, and everything one needs to survive is furnished.

Whether our subject is an inmate, a devoted monk, or perhaps a grateful refugee, is his reality to tell us. It's all one's perspective, and subject to change. He could be any of those things this morning, and a different one tonight.

Reality isn't objective or definable by an independent observer. Neither is it the agreement of the "real world" and one's model of this real world. One's reality is just that, one's own. Don't believe me? Ask a schizophrenic who has gone off his meds. A benevolent, loving family can be viewed as conspiratory and backstabbing. To say "If I had my very own reality, I'd be a millionaire married to a model", is a glib simplification, certainly. One doesn't get to *pick* their reality, it forms like the layers of an onion's skin (in the mind of the mentally stable). You cannot go from what you "know" to be real to how you would like it to be just because you'd like it that way. We are each a product of who we were one second ago, conditioned by new stimuli. Each thought is formed by the previous thousand, plus one's experiences.

Don't ya think it's rather contrary to the *process* of philosophy to simply label the sum of the physical state of the universe as reality? Maybe it's silly semantics, but I don't see it as productive, in a forum ostensibly created around Philosophy, to use this term, which has a unique nature in the field of thinking, searching, examining, reflecting, questioning, etc. as a dead-end. Use the word "reality" to symbolize that in a forum on physics, or astronomy, or another scientific discipline, but not here in one of the humanities. It may be the same word, but it has a radically different intent among philosophers than scientists.

Two attorneys are working on a case. One says to the other, "The copier is out of paper." The second one grunts acknowledgment.

An attorney says to the office secretary, "The copier is out of paper." The secretary replies, "I'm sorry, I'll refill it straightaway."

The second example is higher context communication. A simple observation is seen as an order, maybe even a complaint about job performance.

In the lowest possible context, "reality" is concrete and objective. But when you walk thru the door of this forum, certain things attain a higher context meaning. People have to think more, which is a good thing.

I like the metaphor of reality as lumber better than mine (about an onion's skin). An immutable fact can shape it, like a tree's roots growing around the edge of a rock. And just like wood, a violent blow can fracture one's reality... Mine was just off the cuff...

Like puzzles?? Add punctuation to the following (more than one sentence) so it makes sense...

that which is is that which is not is not is that it it is

(Good Luck!! rofl rofl rofl )

Hmmm... Close. Think simpler. Remember, more than one sentence. biggrin