What is real

[Grey Wolf]

ahhh
finally I can ask this question in peace. Me and my friends used to think about this on a daily basis and debate on this but we have since went to different schools and different courses and thus we have not talked about this for quite sometime. I've recently been thinking about it again given the recent happenings in my life and I would like to see your views.

I mean, I have had people define to me that what we can see, touch , feel and so on so forth using our five senses is real but if thats the case, then our intuition and thoughts arn't real? Since we obviously have both, it can't be true. I suppose the internet can also be used for this argument. I mean, we can't see it but we are obviously are using it.

Then , my friend said that what we percieve as real is real. but then again,even if we think we are the president, we obviously also arn't so it cant be true.

Another argument I've heard was that only our thoughts and our mind is real. But then again, then how are we using computers and what on earth are we seeing, feeling, listening to etc everyday?

so..what are your views?

 

[Soulful]

Good question..

I think experience is real, but it is not always congruent with "reality".

I also believe that thoughts and emotions are very much real. Just because they are subjective (as opposed to objective), does not make them any less real. We may not be able to measure them quantifiably like we can the objective things (with 5 senses) - but our entire world is created based on thoughts/feelings/beliefs. Someone first had to think of a car in order to create it in the physical world. The unnoticed isn't necessarily any less valid. It also isn't always reflected in the physical world.

 

[Quinlan]

The only reality that exists is the one that is agreed upon between human beings. I never presume to know what is only what might be. That's why you'll often find a lot of supposes, perhaps, maybes and possiblies in my writing.

 

[Duty]

A more fundamental problem is:

"If reality were a certain way, how would we know it? Can we know it?"

 

[IndigoSensor]

Things that can not be described by the 5 senses are so much more real and meaningful to me then this physical world (which to me is an illusion I have created for ease of living).

What I feel (non-tangiable), perceive, imagine, and intuite, are the things that I know, to me, are real.

 

[Quinlan]

I find that somewhat terrifying.

 

[Pristinegirl]

Things that can not be described by the 5 senses are so much more real and meaningful to me then this physical world (which to me is an illusion I have created for ease of living).

What I feel (non-tangiable), perceive, imagine, and intuite, are the things that I know, to me, are real.

FINALLY someone says it, I have been feeling this way for so long. DITTO.

 

[mayflow]

FINALLY someone says it, I have been feeling this way for so long. DITTO.

I ditto this ditto!

 

[IndigoSensor]

I find that somewhat terrifying.

Interesting, I find it the otherway around to what I said more terrifying.

 

[Xenfinity]

Whatever you think is real, is real.

In other words, everyone will have a different opinion because everyone has had a different life experience. For example, I believe that dreams are real because they bring about feelings and stay in my memory afterward. They have altered my life experience. But that's just me.

People can truly believe that something is real even when it may not be for others. Nobody should be able to say that it isn't real for that person because they are not that person.

Real is just a word...people use it when they want to describe to others what it means to them.

 

[Duty]

Whatever you think is real, is real.

In other words, everyone will have a different opinion because everyone has had a different life experience. For example, I believe that dreams are real because they bring about feelings and stay in my memory afterward. They have altered my life experience. But that's just me.

People can truly believe that something is real even when it may not be for others. Nobody should be able to say that it isn't real for that person because they are not that person.

Real is just a word...people use it when they want to describe to others what it means to them.

So the voices a schizophrenic hears are real? I wouldn't advise telling him that...

Things that can not be described by the 5 senses are so much more real and meaningful to me then this physical world (which to me is an illusion I have created for ease of living).

What I feel (non-tangiable), perceive, imagine, and intuite, are the things that I know, to me, are real.

If the things you imagine are more real then material substances you perceive with the 5 senses, this means that invisible, yet somehow the color purple, dragon fairies that I'm imagining are more real then my keyboard. A lot of (racist) people seem to intuit that the country is going to figuratively implode because a black man is the president...does this make their intuition more real then the physical world?

 

[Soulful]

So the voices a schizophrenic hears are real? I wouldn't advise telling him that..

Well, they are real to her/him. I think it's important to validate that but (if it's your position to say so), also mention that you understand they see/hear them but that you don't.

I'm not schizophrenic and I've never hallucinated to my knowledge, but I think that I would feel so frustrated if I was hearing voices or hearing things and no one validated that this was my reality. Even if they told me that I'm the only one who sees it.. at least then I would know something's not right but I would know they believe me too.

 

[Xenfinity]

So the voices a schizophrenic hears are real? I wouldn't advise telling him that...

yeaaah...did you read what I said?

 

[IndigoSensor]

If the things you imagine are more real then material substances you perceive with the 5 senses, this means that invisible, yet somehow the color purple, dragon fairies that I'm imagining are more real then my keyboard. A lot of (racist) people seem to intuit that the country is going to figuratively implode because a black man is the president...does this make their intuition more real then the physical world?

*sigh* I hate debating.... Particularry philosphy.

What you say for you is real, is real. It works in my own world, and that is more then enough for me.