Thoughts 10/23/2006 October 23, 2006
Posted by Kelsey Martineau in Philosophy.Tags: Philosophy
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What is real? Ahh yes philosophy, such a fun topic to post on, and its been quite a while, so here’s a stab at a post. What is real? How can we know that what we are experiencing truly is “real?” You’re probably thinking to yourself, dang Kelsey you’ve seen The Matrix one too many times, but no really, bear with me. How do you know I am real? How do I know you are real? I absolutely love the book Simulation & Simulacra by Jean Baudrillard. If you haven’t read it, read it. It’s very interesting. Of course many people shun away from things like that due to fear of the unknown, but on the contrary I love exploring new ideas and philosophical thoughts. Basically, the book tries to define reality, and how we perceive things. It discusses the possibility that each and every thing that we encounter in life is nothing more than our minds creating it, and no one nor no single thing is real. There is no logical proof against that argument. You can say, well Kelsey I know I’m real, and can try to convince me that you are, but how do I know that’s not simply my mind creating that. Haha, many of you are probably thinking, this guys gone off the deep end. Nah, I’m not crazy, I’m just challenging you. That’s how philosophy was born. Simple ideas like that. It’s very controversial, but I find it very interesting.The Matrix can give us insight on so much in life. I absolutely love movies that I can view and take so many different points of view on. For example, the philosophical views of The Matrix can be observed, but also the religious views can as well. Excellent film. The question is, do you think that something like that is possible? Is it possible that we are all being deceived, and are all in tubes somewhere and don’t control our real life whatsoever? Sure it’s possible; nothing should be ruled out in my opinion.
That reminds me of a girl that I used to work with. She was so faithful and loved God so much, and I admire that. But I challenged her one day; I said, “Have you ever considered the possibility that there is no God, and there is no life after death whatsoever?” And she got offended. Now before I continue, I just want to state that I do believe in God, and believe that He exists. I was simply challenging her mind. I think that’s very healthy. I think it’s very healthy to wonder, and question our beliefs. I believe it makes us stronger in the end. But to get back to the conversation I was having with her, she said, “Well of course I know He exists, I can see him everywhere.” So I asked in return, “Where?” And she responded, “The wind blows, we can’t see it, but it’s there” So I took it a step further, and asked her what if she would have been raised in a Buddhist environment, brought up believing in Buddha, and meditation, etc… Well eventually it came down to her stomping out of the room getting offended. That wasn’t really my goal though. I just wanted to challenge her. You know that’s an inspirational thing for us all to do. Why do you believe what you do? What makes you a believer? Is it because you were taught to be? Is it because you have felt that void in the past? I’ll be honest, there have been times in my life where I drifted away from God, and did my own thing, and I always feel a void when that happens. I feel like there is something that needs to be there that isn’t. That’s why I believe. That’s all there is to it. So I challenge you, why do you believe what you believe? Or why is there a lack of belief in your life? What has caused that? Is it what you really believe, and do you feel right about it? Are you comfortable where you are in your life?
Thanks for the book reference, I’ll definitely have to check that out.
I do also agree with challenging the mind, if you can question your own belief, are you sure you should be following something on such a shaky foundation?
~ CodeStalker
Reality is that in which we live. I wouldn’t get into knots trying to define what reality is. It is much more fun trying to discover what the truth of it is! And that what we believe doesn’t always reflect reality. Reality is the inescapable truth around us. If you understand truth, you will understand reality. There’s a knot!
For several centuries, thousands even, the discussion about what is “really real” has gone from mere beer talk of the presocratics in Greece to modern philosophers like Descartes,to Kant even up till today. The problem really is within the metaphysical view of everything. It has gone far off to something which our mind isn’t capable of grasping anymore. But then again, people don’t care really if what they see is real or not. When Descartes doubted everything even his own existence, he’s gone solipsist and burned all bridges to sense experience because he said sense experience cannot be trusted in trying to prove that fact that he exist. It is because, he says, sense tend to deceive us. And soon other philosophers and thinkers elaborated, shunned, disproved, agreed with his concept of existence, still, no one can really tell what is “really real”. That’s the mysterious thing about existing, you can’t really tell. noh?
this this the reason why after David Hume, who criticize Descartes, Immanuel Kant said that we need the moral postulates that we must live “as if” despite all doubts. He presented moral postulates. That would solve the presence of things known and unknown. Practically, there was a big wall between the empiricist and the rationalist philosophers before Kant. Since Kant, philosphy evovle into something which considers a view of the entire dynamic view of life. ^_^
I was thinking quite a bit about this the other day as well. You have some interesting insights. I totally agree with the importance of challenging our minds, as long as the challenge has the motivation of being constructive and not just tearing people down. Have a nice week.
On a simple note, folks should not feel threatened when their current beliefs are questioned, for they are only beliefs about reality and not the real thing. We shouldn’t steadily question folks who are not ready for that will bring upheaval into their lives for which they’re not ready for. Reading the right kinds of books expands our consciousness, but too much reading without creating something good for everyone disrupts our life’s purposes and what we are supposed to accomplish in life. This is what I have been in danger of doing, I’ve been blessed with thousands of books, but I believe it will be a happy ending.
I got this from the Net on the Seth material, a girl wrote: ‘I am a happy person. Staying happy makes life so entirely valuable each moment, so it is an easy choice to make. And knowing that all my desires are provided instantly even before I am aware that I might like to experience whatever the idea is that arises in my awareness, makes life easy.’