“Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a persistent one.” Albert…

“Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a persistent one.” Albert…

“Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a persistent one.”Albert Einstein (1879-1955) Picture of the universe

Does this image look familiar? Many people think it looks like the Earth, but actually, it is much, much, much bigger than that! In fact, the photo represents our best snapshot of the entire universe!

But is this really all there is?

In this activity you will be exploring just what reality is…and again you may be surprised by what you discover!

1. Necessary or Sufficient?

You’ve probably already gotten a sense that proper terminology is extremely important in philosophy. For example, Dictionary.com defines truth as:

1. the true or actual state of a matter: He tried to find out the truth.
2. conformity with fact or reality; verity: the truth of a statement.
3. a verified or indisputable fact, proposition, principle, or the like: mathematical truths.
4. the state or character of being true.
5. actuality or actual existence.
6. an obvious or accepted fact; truism; platitude.
7. honesty; integrity; truthfulness.
8. (often an initial capital letter) ideal or fundamental reality apart from and transcending perceived experience: the basic truths of life.
9. agreement with a standard or original.
10. accuracy, as of position or adjustment.
11. Archaic. fidelity or constancy.
12. in truth, in reality; in fact; actually: In truth, moral decay hastened the decline of the Roman Empire.

But which one is it? Depending on the definition chosen, the meaning can change entirely. Can you imagine a Judge sentencing a prisoner without knowing what “sentencing” means? In fact, most philosophical debate surrounds the meaning of a few key phrases (remember the iceberg).

“But what about different languages, changes over time, and perspectives?” the astute young philosopher might ask (that’s you). Good question! For although these variations add great variety to our global understanding of the world and how it works, these variations do tend to confuse matters.

Two of the most important philosophical distinctions are necessary and sufficient. Although you will be examining and applying these ideas more directly when you study logic, understanding the basic meaning of these terms is essential to have an accurate philosophical dialogue.

Necessary: A is necessary for B if (if and only if) B can’t occur without A. Any time you have B, you have A. Anything B is A.

Sufficient: A is sufficient for B if (if and only if) A guarantees B. Any time you have A, you have B. Anything A is B.

You may be thinking the two are the same. Not true! Review this chart and you’ll begin to understand how important a single word can be.

comparison or proposition must always be sufficient before it can be necessary. However, something does not have to be necessary in order to be sufficient but it does have to be sufficient in order to be necessary. In other words, if something is necessary it is essential and cannot be otherwise.

2. Back to Reality?

As noted in the initial quote, Einstein believed that reality was merely an illusion. So too do philosophers question what reality is and whether it exists. And, by the end of this short activity, you too might find yourself wondering whether you yourself even exist! As T.S. Elliot notes, “Humankind cannot bear very much reality.”

When people talk about reality, they generally mean what actually exists. In your day-to-day life, you probably assume everything you sense and experience is real (unless you are watching reality television – but more on this paradox later). But is it?

 

You see, our perceptions cannot always be trusted; we’re not infallible (perfect). Mirages and dreams are other examples of how you can be mistaken – both are “unreal” images (even experiences) your mind creates which can potentially trick you. Take a moment to conduct a thought experiment and imagine how you would define reality if you were a rock (no sensory perception), a snake (can taste infrared temperatures) or a whale (you communicate by singing).

Most of what you believe to be true is actually trust in the people who provided the information. For example, almost everyone believes that Saturn has rings. But do you know that for certain? Isn’t it possible (albeit unlikely) that the pictures you have seen are fake or incorrect? Unless you have been to Saturn and seen the rings yourself, you are relying on other people’s views and reality and making it a part of your own.

Take a moment and close your eyes and imagine what you did last night. Concentrate on the sights, smells, sounds, tastes, and feelings. Is that memory “real”? Well, the memory may (note: MAY) be, but all of the sensations you just imagined no longer are – they are recollections, and as any lawyer can tell you, a person’s recollections are never 100% accurate. Sound disconcerting? Unfortunately, we are only at the tip of the iceberg…

Did you know?

Space-time curvature

Does it seem strange that Einstein keeps popping up in a philosophy course? Yet, when you are asking the question ‘what is reality?’, few people have contributed so much to change our view of what reality is as he did. Indeed, Einstein’s famous equation E=mc² actually expresses a big philosophical position too; basically, matter and energy are the same thing, but just perceived differently.

Likewise, Einstein’s theory of relativity explains how something, as accepted as time, isn’t always guaranteed. Gravity and velocity can cause time dilations, which means that if you are near something heavy enough or are going fast enough, time slows down for you (this might explain the feeling you get after eating a huge meal or when you’re racing to get to the bathroom after a long class!). If you were traveling on a spaceship going 0.999999c (where c = speed of light), the journey to Pluto from Earth would only take 42 seconds for the people on the spaceship, but back on Earth over 5 hours would have passed. In essence, you would be traveling into the future! But such concerns are not merely for science fiction; GPS device manufacturers are intimately aware of relativity since ignoring the theory would result in their satellites not functioning.

The subject of reality grows stranger yet when you consider the recent speculation into String theory. Simply, String theory suggests that the universe as we know it is merely an infinitesimally small part of a series of interwoven, vibrating strings… So, even if reality really is an illusion, the question now becomes: which illusion is it?

 

3. Monism vs. Dualism

One of the most enduring philosophical debates is on whether reality consists of one or more than one substance. Many ancient Greek philosophers believed certain forces of nature to be the root of reality. For example, Thales, who some consider the first Greek philosopher believed water reflected reality. Anaximenes was an early 6th-century Greek philosopher who thought that thought airlifted the world and was the source of all that exists. Heraclitus, an ancient Greek philosopher known as “The Obscure”, suspected that fire’s ever-changing form represented reality. Heraclitus is recognized as one of the earliest dialectical philosophers (recognizing the existence of oppositional forces at work in nature) with his acknowledgment of the universality of change and development through internal contradictions, as in his statements:

“By cosmic rule, as day yields night, so winter summer, war peace, plenty famine. All things change. Air penetrates the lump of myrrh until the joining bodies die and rise again in smoke called incense.”

“Men do not know how that which is drawn in different directions harmonizes with itself. The harmonious structure of the world depends upon opposite tension like that of the bow and the lyre.”

“This universe, which is the same for all, has not been made by any god or man, but it always has been, is, and will be an ever-living fire, kindling itself by regular measures and going out by regular measures”

from The Collected Wisdom of Heraclitus, Translated by Brooks Haxton. Published 2001 by Penguin Classics.

Anaximander, another pre-Socratic philosopher, a student of Thales, and an early proponent of science, developed that a theoretical explanation for all universal existence titled ‘apron (an undefined infinite). In this theory, Anaximander posited the universe is boundless and formless but is constituted of a single primary substance out of which all individual phenomena arise. Finally, Pythagoras, known to ancient Greeks and the “Father of Numbers” and who you have undoubtedly crossed paths with within a high school Math class, mandated that math equated to reality.

From the latter two, you can see that reality’s complexity grew in the philosophers’ minds. As the ideas developed, they changed from monistic (one substance) to dualistic (more than one substance). Generally, dualism means that philosophers argue for a separate body and mind whereas monism means philosophers argue for a unified, inseparable body and mind. Empedocles put forth a dualistic concept that combined the elements of earth, air, fire, and water. However, it was thanks to Plato’s Phaedo and Aristotle’s Metaphysics that the dualist concept was seriously explored.

Francesco Hayez’s Aristotle

In Metaphysics Aristotle created categories – boy did he love categorizing things! He believed you could recognize and know reality through the application of four principal causes: material, formal, efficient, and final. With each cause, you can learn more about the actual reality of the object or substance in question.

Aristotle believed in a separation between body and mind and he felt that the application of his causes allowed one to understand them.

Aristotle’s driving belief was that “All men by nature desire knowledge.” If you too desire knowledge, you can read Aristotle’s complete “Metaphysics”. Click here to preview “Metaphysics” or click here to download the entire text. Please note, the texts are quite large so you may wish to first find a summary (see Resources)

4. Cogito Ergo Sum (I think, therefore I am)

Right now you might feel a little doubtful about, well, everything! If so, don’t worry… you aren’t alone. Back in 1641 famous modernist philosopher and mathematician Rene Descartes essentially rationalized (thought without experimenting) his way to a very frightening conclusion: he might not exist! Fortunately, Descartes was able to convince himself otherwise and revolutionized the mind-body argument when he wrote his famous Meditations on First Philosophy.

How did he do it? Actually, he was sort of watching the 16th-century version of reality tv; he was sitting in a chair, looking out his window at a man in a trench coat. Because he could not see the man’s face, he realized that he had no real proof that the man was in fact a man. He could be something else (perhaps a robot) dressed as a man. This startling conclusion led him to begin a mammoth thought experiment centering on doubt; in essence, what can you really know for certain?

Man in a trench coat

Think of all the certainties that you take for granted: the sun rises, your senses don’t (usually) lie to you, family members exist, friends are fun to hang out with, etc. Descartes, however, started doubting all of that, and more. As he himself says in his “First Meditation”, “Several years have now elapsed since I first became aware that I had accepted, even from my youth, many false opinions for true, and that consequently what I afterward based on such principles was highly doubtful; and from that time I was convinced of the necessity of undertaking once in my life to rid myself of all the opinions I had adopted, and of commencing anew the work of building from the foundation…” (Réné Descartes, The Method, Meditations and Philosophy of Descartes [1637]).

In the end, Descartes rationalized away everything from his bathrobe to his body. He just couldn’t prove, necessarily, that he wasn’t either dreaming or being tricked by some malicious evil spirit. Today we might compare his concerns to being either downloaded into a virtual reality machine (ala the Matrix) or being a brain in a jar being fed false sensory stimuli. And if you think that sounds too sci-fi, just remember the famous “I smell burnt toast!” exclamation from a surprised epilepsy patient whose brain was being electrically stimulated by Doctor Penfield back in the 1930s. Think of it this way: can you prove without any doubt that you are not dreaming, hooked into a computer or a brain in a jar?

Fortunately, Descartes’ doubt was not infinite. He realized that although he could doubt everything from his friends’ existence to his own senses, he could not doubt that he was thinking (otherwise, he wouldn’t have had that thought). This simple realization allowed Descartes to infer the necessary and sufficient existence of himself (“I think, therefore I am”) and time (since memories must be from a time that is not now). This foundation permitted him to later “prove” the existence of the body, senses and even God.

 

Required Reading

Read first two Meditations from Descartes’ Meditations on First Philosophy.

Practice: Identify main points in Descartes’ writings. Are Descartes’ arguments valid? Why or why not? How his arguments might be improved upon.

Enrichment

 

A position paper presents an arguable opinion about an issue. The goal of a position paper is to convince the audience that your opinion is valid and worthy of being listened to. It is important to address all sides of the issue and present it in a manner that clearly understandable to your audience. Take one side of the argument and persuade your audience that you have founded knowledge of the topic being presented. Important to support argument with evidence, as well as to address the counterclaims to show that you are informed about both sides of the argument.

Issue Criteria

To take a side on a subject;

Is it a real issue, with genuine controversy and uncertainty?

Can you distinctly identify two positions?

Is the issue narrow enough to be manageable?

 

 

Analyzing an Issue and Developing an Argument

Once topic is selected, research on the subject matter. Listing out the pro and con sides of the topic will help identify a list of supporting evidence and counterclaims for both sides. Supporting evidence includes the following:

Factual Knowledge – Information that is verifiable and agreed upon by almost everyone.

Statistical Inferences – Interpretation and examples of an accumulation of facts.

Informed Opinion – Opinion developed through research and/or expertise of the claim.

Personal Testimony – Personal experience related by a knowledgeable party.

In determining your viewpoint:

Can anage the material within the specifications set by the assignment instructions?

Does topic assert something specific and propose a plan of action?

Have enough material to support your opinion?

Organization

The introduction should lead up to a thesis that organizes the rest. There are three advantages to leading with the thesis:

1. The audience knows where you stand.

2. The thesis is located in two places, in the first (paragraph) and in the last (paragraph).

3. It is an academic summary of your argument.

Below is a generic outline:

I. Introduction

___A. Introduce the topic

___B. Provide background on the topic

___C. Assert the thesis (your view of the issue)

II. Counter Argument

___A. Summarize the counterclaims

___B. Provide supporting information for counterclaims

___C. Refute the counterclaims

___D. Give evidence for the argument

III. Your Argument

___A. Assert point #1 of your claims

_____1. Give your opinion

_____2. Provide support

___B. Assert point #2 of your claims

_____1. Give your opinion

_____2. Provide support

___C. Assert point #3 of your claims

_____1. Give your opinion

_____2. Provide support

IV. Conclusion

___A. Restate your argument

___B. Provide a plan of action

Complete:

Make sure read Descartes’ Summary, particularly the First and Second Meditations reading.

Congratulations!

You have just been hired as a probationary reviewer by the entirely fictitious Philosophers of the World Review Board (PERB). If you are successful, no longer will you be destined to shovel horse excrement for the rest of your natural life. And to imagine your friends and peers predicted nothing would come of your decision to take Philosophy classes…

But before you can start your new life, first you must prove yourself. The PERB has demanded a 3 pagaraph that has:

1.   short summary of the First and Second Meditations

2.  Whether Descartes’ argument is sound. provide quotations for support

3.    single recommendation for improvement to the author.