How do you know>?

Question

How do you know what is real and what is not? I would like to know your opinion.

Answer 1

EVERYTHING is real. Not everything is real in the same way.

You can imagine Mickey Mouse. This is obviously not a real mouse, or even an actual physical entity. But it is a character with a certain personality, unique characteristics, and so on. He is real as an idea.

One might say that Benjamin Franklin is real in the same way. We all know (or can easily find out) things about him, but he is not going to be physically present either.

And the same might be said for any of the rest of your emotions, ideas, fancies, perceptions, and so on. They exist to you, even if I can never experience them in the same way. But in a way, this is true of all things... even if we sit side by side, do we really see the same sunset or taste the same dinner?

Every experience is unique, and every one is completely and utterly real.

Answer 2

There are many different schools of thought regarding reality. I myself an an empiricist, which means that I derive my knowledge from empirical methods. Which is to say that my reality is defined by how my senses experience it. I'm grounded by a sort of hyper-reality, although some of my thoughts are in direct contravention to that idea. For instance, I believe thoughts are real. Of course it is totally intangible, however I can force others to empirically realize my thoughts through the physical manifestation of them. There are all kinds of interesting ideas on reality. Do some research, and find the thoughts that fit best for you.

Answer 3

Define real!?, as far as what you see around you? situations?
what you see and feel is real., what you heard of - like; there is a place called Iceland, or, this planet is a sphere, or maybe that all of us know that i can sit here in my chair far from you and with only a few clicks of my fingers, i can try to answer this question, it's "real" because you can read it now, but how did we get to accomplish that, is, unreal :)

Answer 4

Cool Question!! I guess my opinion is the tangible is real. If you can feel it it's gotta be real. And even weirder is that what is real to me may be "not real" to you by that I mean stuff like religion, the voices in your head etc. None of that is real to me but if you feel it believe it etc then it is real to you. I am sure that makes no sense either

Answer 5

Everything that you experience is real, what matters is what can it influence. Nightmares can't physically harm your family, wet dreams don't give you venereal disease, and a loved one's death can't take away your love for them, but there are many things that can, some people would say that is what makes them real, but I think they just have a different sphere of influence.

Answer 6

Perception is truth. There is no real tool to measure the truth or reality of anything. It all comes down to perception or the belief of an individual to believe the words or "research" of another.

Answer 7

I do not...

I make assumtions based on past experience.

Most of these are subconcious and wired into my brain when I am young (i.e. persistence of objects) but many are learned.

We all perceive our own verison of an objective reality.

For me I know that I will burn my finger in a flame but not by touching a flame on a TV screen (well unless it is a very hot plasma screen lol)

Answer 8

You have to look inward for the answer. What is real to me, may not be real to you. You were born with the knowledge that you seek the answer to. You just have to wake up and realize it.

Answer 9

You are the only thing that you can be sure is real.

Answer 10

I can only use the brain I have to make my own observations and read about the observations of others. And figure out what is logical.