Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Bill on January 14, 2011 at 5:29pm

Interesting hypothesis, especially in light of my earlier point that dreams are more vivid when you have to pee. (this is actually true).

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Richard W. Symonds on January 14, 2011 at 12:06pm

"Fairly simply" Neal ?! You state : "Objective reality is everything that is still there when you are not."

 

OK- very serious question : Is a Rainbow there if I am not ? 

 

You also say : ""I don't think that subjective reality (our inner thought/emotion/dream world presumably?) is reality".

 

OK Neal - what is it then...a created illusion of the real world of objective reality ? 

 

If so, when I dream, I am presumably - by your logic - in an illusion having an illusion ?

 

If that is so, then I think that's bollocks - sorry, highly implausible.

 

 

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Bill on January 14, 2011 at 12:15pm

"A play within a play" as Shakespeare would say. Why is that implausible, or less plausible than supernatural explanations?

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Richard W. Symonds on January 14, 2011 at 12:20pm

Because Bill, you are expecting me to believe that, when I dream, there is a ghost within the ghost of a machine (the mind).

 

That, to me, is more implausible than the idea of reality being both an objective reality & a subjective reality. 

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Bill on January 14, 2011 at 12:32pm

So you are telling me that it is more plausible for there to be two separate realities, rather than one reality with a model of it, and another model inside that model? I can build a real house, with a doll house in it, and a miniature doll house inside that one. I can't imagine how two or three coexisting realities is a simpler explanation than this. Sure, it seems real when you are playing with the doll house, but common sense tells you it is not.

 

I'm not talking about ghosts, but models. If you like, you can say that objective reality is what is actually real, and subjective reality is our model of what we think is real. If so, then perhaps we can agree and move on. But I think you are trying to attribute something more to this phenomenon, to invoke a supernatural explanation...

 

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Richard W. Symonds on January 14, 2011 at 4:54pm

Bill, I am merely defending the view that there is both a subjective & objective reality - two separate realities.

 

For me, that rings true more than the idea of one big reality, with smaller "models" of that reality within it.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Richard W. Symonds on January 14, 2011 at 5:03pm

Careful Adriana - don't knock Descartes too much, or you may have Chomsky to contend with ;)

 

http://www.amazon.com/Cartesian-Linguistics-Chapter-History-Rationa...

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Richard W. Symonds on January 14, 2011 at 6:02pm

Adriana, I can see you've already made up your mind about me. I could disagree with your prejudices & assumptions, but what's the point ?

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Richard W. Symonds on January 14, 2011 at 5:14pm

Neal, as far as I can see, dreams are just the Mind's 'waste products' - if we didn't dream we would get 'bunged up' and eventually get 'infected'.

 

Regarding rainbows, there is a powerful case which can be made suggesting you are mistaken.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Bill on January 14, 2011 at 5:25pm

"If a man says something and there is not a woman there to hear him, is he still wrong?"

 

my wife likes that one!

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Allen Sneed on January 15, 2011 at 12:19pm

"Is a Rainbow there if I am not ?"

 

Yes. The light refraction through water molecules in the atmosphere that creates the image of a rainbow still happens even when we don't see it.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Richard W. Symonds on January 15, 2011 at 12:31pm

Yes Allen, but apparently it is only the human eye which can perceive this.

 

So, if the human is not there...?

• ▶ Reply

• ‹ Previous
• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5
• …
• 8
• Next ›
• Page