Many people here ask "is such and such real" or answer "such and such is not real" how can you be 100% sure something is not real. Some will say "Because I've never seen one" but somewhere out there exists a person who has never seen a common house cat. Does that mean house cats do not exist? We do not have enough information on how the universe works to say this is real and that is not, in my opinion anyway.
2006-07-15 14:02:03 · 12 answers · asked by chris in NC 2 in Society & Culture ➔ Mythology & Folklore
A13 whoa, for a moment there I felt like I did in that scene in Matrix Reloaded where the Creator is explaining how it all started. That feeling was "um did someone just slip something into my popcorn?" lol. You have thought a lot about this and after reading your post three times and running it through the database of ten super computers I think I have the jist of it. What is your IQ anyway? 125? Do you have a brother named Commander Data? Serously though I think what you are saying is that this fan next to me (stupid AC quit working) is real because it is proven to exist but an elf is not real because it is not proven to exist but that does not mean that it does not exist. So simply put just because something is not "real" does not mean that it does not exist. Am I right? Anyway feel free to contact me if I got it wrong. :)
2006-07-16 06:53:42 · update #1
Reality in everyday usage means "everything that exists". The term reality, in its widest sense, includes everything that is, whether it is observable, accessible or understandable by science, philosophy, or any other system of analysis. Reality in this sense may include both being and nothingness, whereas existence is often restricted to being (compare with nature).
In the strict sense of Western philosophy, there are levels or gradation to the nature and conception of reality. These levels include, from the most subjective to the most rigorous: phenomenological reality, truth, fact, and axiom.
What reality might not be
"Reality", the concept, is contrasted with a wide variety of other concepts, largely depending upon the intellectual discipline. It can help understand what we mean by "reality" to note what we say is not real but usually if there is no original and related proofs it isn't reality.
In philosophy, reality is contrasted with nonexistence (penguins do exist; so they are real) and mere possibility (a mountain made of gold is merely possible, but is not real) unless they are discovered. Sometimes philosophers speak as though reality is contrasted with existence itself, though ordinary language and many other philosophers would treat these as synonyms. They have in mind the notion that there is a kind of reality — a mental or intensional reality, perhaps — that imaginary objects, such as the aforementioned golden mountain, have. Alexius Meinong is famous, or infamous, for holding that such things have so-called subsistence, and thus a kind of reality, even while they do not actually exist. Most philosophers find the very notion of "subsistence" mysterious and unnecessary, and one of the shibboleths and starting points of 20th century analytic philosophy has been the forceful rejection of the notion of subsistence — of "real" but nonexistent objects.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reality
2006-07-15 22:44:37 · answer #1 · answered by a13 4 · 4⤊ 0⤋
My opinion: Something is "real" so long as any one person claims that it is real, because there's no one who can faillessly argue that the thing in question is not real to that one person. Therefore what constitutes reality is limited by human thought only.
I agree with your case about "I haven't seen it." There are many people who've never seen snow down here, but having moved from a slightly more northernly area I am quite sure snow exists.
2006-07-15 21:51:16 · answer #2 · answered by Artful.Dodger 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The definition I believe of real is anything NOT fake. No, because you have never seen something does not make it unreal. For instance the wind. It is unseen, yet it is entirely real. Real is sometimes a feeling and sometimes tangible. I guess it all is in the eye of the beholder.
2006-07-15 21:06:32 · answer #3 · answered by doolittlerd77 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Genuine
2006-07-15 23:05:45 · answer #4 · answered by bully115 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I can gather enough information about a wax person to know that its not a "REAL" person. Also, there are things you just know, for example:
You know that there isn't a real monkey on earth that can shoot laser beams out its a**
2006-07-15 21:08:15 · answer #5 · answered by Pawl M Davis 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Taking your first theory of knowledge course? (If not try taking one)
If "clueless" above my answer had taken one, he would know that just because noone has ever encountered a monkey that shoots laser beams out its @$$, doesn't mean there are none out there (maybe it's just that noone ever lived to tell about them).
2006-07-15 21:18:29 · answer #6 · answered by QED 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Nothing is real and everything is real, your reality decides. If you want to know, 'truth' does not change but reality does.
2006-07-16 13:01:06 · answer #7 · answered by arvecar 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
not real and non existent are two separate issues, real is anything that you can perceive with any of your senses.
2006-07-15 21:27:00 · answer #8 · answered by class4 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Genuine, not imaginary.
2006-07-16 00:00:12 · answer #9 · answered by R S 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Are you real?
How do you know?
2006-07-15 21:45:03 · answer #10 · answered by Bender 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋