How can you know what reality really is?

Question

If you really think about it there is no way to tell that your body, other people, the world, pain, or anything else is the creation or your or somebody else's mind. any views?

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* 9 answers

Chris L
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If you really think about it there is no way to tell that your body, other people, the world, pain, or anything else isn't the creation or your or somebody else's mind. any views?

This isn't a question about who created us nor is it religious. its a question about reality.

Answer 1

Descartes actually said "I am THINKING, therefore I exist." The fact that the action is present proves his present existence.
Now, take a step back and realize that Descartes, Hume, Locke all respectable guys, really liked to hear themselves talk.

The problem is that real experience is beyond language. Language can only describe a flawed version of a person's experience. So, even as you read this, you aren't getting my thought, but a watered down version of my expression of it. Those guys couldn't prove existence with words. The fact that there are words comes after the existence of an idea or person to necessitate language.

Answer 2

we can't.

but maybe this is where real faith comes in. Not a religious faith but the kind of faith you have when you order dinner in a restaurant. You instinctively believe it will not come laced with arsenic.
I think we may be misinterpreting reality.
Reality could be just a visible, palpable, hard copy of what we dream and wish for with all the bells, whistles and balance required to exist comfortably between the two worlds. the world of aspirations and the world of actuality.. This is perhaps what is meant by the power of suggestion.

Answer 3

This is not something I can answer in one or two pages.
Your question is a great question (smart cookie!!) and if you are ready to take the answers, I suggest you read some books from L.Ron Hubbard. (Scientology)
Scientology is the study of life. And what you are asking is covered in so many books and tapes, that I would not even know how to begin to answer.
If you want to see for yourself, check it out, you dont have to believe anything, what is true for you is true for you. Then you can make up your OWN mind about it.
ok?

Answer 4

I would suppose that reality is what a person is expeiencing and living at the moment. Other parts of this persons reality can be based on information provided by the senses and things like news events and their own individual experiences. I would further suppose that reality is an individual experience.

Answer 5

The harsh reality is, that whatever it is, we're stuck with it!
Because, unless you are mentally ill, and you mind is incapable of handling every day life,( although sometimes I feel that way, too!)what you have then is reality!
Bills, no money,job related stress, ect, those are absolute real life things! What you can do is question everything under the sun! "Did you see that?' Or " Is this really happening"? "Man, I don't believe this, do you?"
Always question everything, and you will know what is reality, and what isn't!

Answer 6

Let me start with Rene Descarte, father of modern philosophy, who wanted to get down to the bottom of reality. So he set on a quest to doubt everything possible, to discover the foundational impossible-to-refute truth(s).

On the brink of giving up, he discovered something (and I paraphrase it here):

1. I can doubt that everything in the physical universe isn't what it seems (e.g. optical illusions, hallucinations)

2. I can doubt that everything in my mind isn't what it seems (e.g. dreams, wrong assumptions)

3. BUT I cannot doubt that I am doubting & thinking about reality.

This is what Descartes meant by "I think, therefore I exist". I cannot deny the fact that "I" exist (no matter what this "I" may be) because this "I" is doing all the thinking, doubting etc.

In other words, I must exist in order to be able to be mistaken about reality in the first place!

Now, I don't know if you really exist, cos I could be mistaken. But I don't have to care so long as I know for sure I exist. I can choose to live in my own "world" and there's no one to say that my "world" isn't real.

So, there you have it... Reality is in you. That's foundational.

Next, in order for your reality and my reality to share so many things in common (we communicate with each other, we see the same moon up there, we both feel hungry and sleepy etc.), there must be a basis for all these commonalities.

This basis must lie outside of you and me, cos I can't make you exist in my world nor can you make me a pawn in yours! It stands to reason that this "basis" is greater than you and me. Therefore, a Being greater than you or me must exist for us to experience the orderliness of this world we both exist in.

Let's call this Being "God".

And so, because of God, we know reality.

Answer 7

If you take the red pill, you will wake up tomorrow and not remember any of this, take the blue pill and I'll show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.

I'm not making fun of you, I'm just saying that people with thoughts like that have written some of the greatest stories.

Answer 8

i feel and think i'm in reality because it's hard not to think anything else. it's necessary for me to think of things around me as reality because it is what i was supposed to think.

Answer 9

We don't.

Our perceptions of reality are real to us, and that's the best I can give you.

Answer 10

You've been watching much too much of the Matrix.