Dick,

I guess this is also along the lines of Alan's post. I think your three-part model is perfectly consistent with the model of reality held by scientists, so I have no complaints when it comes to your criticisms of science. However, from a purely logical point of view, is it correct to assume there's a reality behind that perceived by your senses? I'm not sure about that.

Most problematic with that concept seems to be the fact that such "reality" is unknowable in principle, or by definition. That is, when you define reality that way, it follows as a necessary consequence that everything you perceive through your senses is not real. Again, I understand scientists make the same mistake, except they are not fully aware of the consequences.

I long ago realized that the commonly held definition of illusion implies that everything we perceive is an illusion, but of course not a lot of people are willing to accept that fact. And so it is that I had to find a solution for the problem on my own, and the best solution I could find was to get rid of the concept of an external reality altogether. That is, I came to understand that reality is a creation of our minds, that it doesn't exist "out there" for our senses to passively absorb it, but instead it's created moment after moment through the efforts of our subconscious.

Yet nothing of that makes any difference to your paper, not as far as I can tell, but by approaching the problem from a slightly different perspective you might be able to express your ideas using a different terminology. That might help people understand it. You see, people's reaction to words has a strong emotional component, if you let that get in the way of your argument you might find yourself fighting against people's feelings, and you know that's a hopeless battle.

What do you think?

• No, reality is not a figment of your imagination, it's real! - doctordick - April 2, 2002 - 17:25 UTC
  • Hume's problem of induction? - harvey1 - April 2, 2002 - 17:32 UTC
    • You haven't the slightest idea of what I am doing do you? - doctordick - April 2, 2002 - 18:31 UTC
      • Why I am laughing? - harvey1 - April 2, 2002 - 19:00 UTC
  • Of course reality is real! Silly me! - aurino - April 2, 2002 - 21:17 UTC
    • If it doesn't lead to fun, don't do it! - doctordick - April 3, 2002 - 20:09 UTC
      • Dick the mystic - aurino - April 3, 2002 - 21:02 UTC
        • In particular rhythm - yanniru - April 3, 2002 - 23:14 UTC
          • Music and metaphysics - aurino - April 4, 2002 - 14:10 UTC
            • Bardo - yanniru - April 4, 2002 - 14:42 UTC
              • Scales - aurino - April 4, 2002 - 15:03 UTC
      • Hey- so why not try new ideas? - dolphin - April 4, 2002 - 12:10 UTC
  • Hey just a minute Dick and Aurino - dolphin - April 4, 2002 - 09:06 UTC
    • You're still not getting it, Alan - aurino - April 4, 2002 - 14:54 UTC
      • I was expecting a joke - harvey1 - April 4, 2002 - 15:10 UTC
        • No pragmatic lesson - aurino - April 4, 2002 - 15:23 UTC
          • I'll have to meditate on that one ;-) (nt) - harvey1 - April 4, 2002 - 16:17 UTC
            • Make sure you don't come up with an answer (nt) - aurino - April 4, 2002 - 16:38 UTC
      • Aurino, I disagree - dolphin - April 5, 2002 - 05:44 UTC
        • You're welcome - aurino - April 5, 2002 - 15:29 UTC
          • I'm open-minded - harvey1 - April 5, 2002 - 16:35 UTC
          • Some multi-party agreement I think - dolphin - April 6, 2002 - 07:13 UTC