What is reality? Seems like an easy question at a glance. When you really dig into it however it's apparent that the answer is not so black and white. Recently this is something I myself have been wrestling with, let's see what good it does to get these thought down on paper... cyber paper... Xanga.
Ok so we can divide some possible answers to this question in three main categories. We have the materialists, the idealists, and the dualists. Let's start with materialists. A materialist would state that all that exists in this world is matter. Matter is in essence the only reality. Mind is not real because it is simply the work of material brain cells functioning together to create a perceived reality, not actual reality. To a materialist the soul is non existent since it is not material. The soul is then an idea created by the material brain and will cease to "exist" when the brain stops functioning after death.
Idealists however hold the exact opposite view. They believe that the ultimate reality is the one which exists in the mind. As one famous idealist named George Berkeley put it, "Esse est aut percipi aut percipere" or "To be is to be perceived or to perceive". In other words something only exists if it is either being perceived or or perceiving something itself. For example if an idealist was asked if a tree falls in the woods and no ones around to hear it does it make a noise, the idealist would say no, the tree makes no noise because no one was there to perceive it. Reality to an idealist exists only within the mind. Reality is made up of perceptions and to an idealist these perceptions, not the material objects, are reality.
The last category acts as a middle ground between the first two theories. Dualism is the belief that reality consists of two separate elements, mind and matter. Dualists claim that while the material world is reality the mental or nonphysical world is also a reality. A dualist would believe that the brain does not control the mind, the mind is in control of the brain. While the mind does exist it is impossible to be measured or divided since it has no size or shape. The mind is non physical so it cannot possibly be discovered or understood in physical materialist terms.
Now which idea do I personally believe? Honestly I have no idea. Materialists certainly have the most scientific evidence to back up their claims but with that belief one must accept the idea that with death comes... death, like the end... of EVERYTHING. I don't know if I can bring myself to believe that. But just because a view is hard to swallow does that make it any less true? I'm not sure. I am more drawn to idealism or dualism. In my opinion everyone has their own personal reality. Everyone sees the same events through a different lens and thus everyone has their own personal reality. A blind mans reality and a deaf persons realities will be very different. Now does this mean that their is no one correct or absolute reality? I'm not sure, if their is no absolute reality why is it that our realities can be so similar? Perhaps our own perceived realities are a result of our own different perceptions of one concrete absolute reality. How would we be able to observe this reality outside of our perceptions? It seems impossible while still in a physical body. Perhaps with death we finally remove ourselves from our own personal perceptions and we are able to fully understand the true nature of this absolute reality. Perhaps we will finally be able to understand the truth our own perceptions were masking. Then again, this is only if existence does infact continue after death.
Either way with death our reality will have to be destroyed. What comes next is anyone's guess.
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