The Concept of Reality in Philosophy - Assignment Example

Philosophy Q Plato’s ‘Dualism’ s that reality is split into two—there is an unchangeable reality, which is the world of ideas, and a changing reality, which we perceive through our senses. Aristotle contradicted Plato, claiming that all reality is objective, and can be empirically verified. He said that there was no separate existence for the world of ideas and that of things that are sensed. (Radical Academy, Aristotle iii) Descartes’ lines “I think therefore I am” puts briefly his view that what a person “clearly and distinctly perceive (s) to be contained in the idea of something, is true of that thing.” (Nolan, 2001) Berkeley in his ‘Immaterial Hypothesis’ held that “an idea exists only insofar as it is perceived, and that a spirit or mind exists only insofar as it perceives or is conscious.” (Thornton, 1987) According to me reality is defined by four dimensions—physical, mental, time and energy. The physical dimension is how I perceive something through my senses; the mental dimension is how my brain perceives it (when I look out of a train window I accept that the trees do not move, although I see them do so.). Time defines reality too. If I travel faster than the speed of light, then reality changes because the time dimension changes. The ‘energy’ dimension is understood if we try to understand the difference in a person who has just died—the difference pertains to energy or life-force. Q-2) Materialists state that there is a reality, which exists outside our consciousness and our mind. We experience this reality through our senses, and this can also be measured scientifically through instruments. The objective world consists of matter, which undergoes change at all time. Space and time are also “modes of existence” of matter. Therefore if a tree falls, it makes a noise, irrespective of whether someone hears it or not. Human perception is not necessary for the existence of colors or sounds. According to Idealism, there is no objective world outside that of our immediate awareness. Our mind is primary, and reality is secondary. If a tree falls within a forest, there would be noise, if we are aware that there is a forest, and that there are trees there. The acceptance of the existence of a collective conscience leads to the conclusion that the noise happens or colors exist, even though an individual mind is unaware of this. Solipsism takes a stand that only my mind exists, and anything outside does not, including other minds. Therefore, the noise exists only if I hear it. Since only one mind exits, discussing with other minds, about the occurrence of an event is not an option. (Physics Forums) Q-3) Descartes’ famous dictum ‘Cogito ergo sum’ (I think, therefore I am) is a methodology of doubt that helped him to reach truth. He does not accept the authority of philosophers who came before him. Neither does he accept what his senses tell him. He doubts. This is done not just for the sake of doubting, but to reach the truth. By doubting, all layers of opinions and ideas that mask the truth are removed. And finally, the truth is revealed that something exists, which doubts, and this something is Descartes himself. “His next task is to reconstruct our knowledge piece by piece, such that at no stage is the possibility of doubt allowed to creep back in.” (Burnham & Fieser in Descartes-Introduction) He proves by this process that the thinking mind is distinct from his body, from the external world or the existence of a God. He shows that knowledge is genuinely possible, including a scientifically based knowledge of the material world. Descartes’ method does not reject knowledge gained by other minds. He accepts a reality which has been reached through scientific method He says that primary objects are objects of mathematics and secondary objects are objects of the senses like heat, taste, color, sight and sound. For instance, an apple is a primary object when we consider its shape or quantity (how many apples) but a secondary object when we consider its redness or taste (Burnham & Fieser on Descartes in The Discussion on Method and Meditation 1: c) Hyperbolic Doubt) Q-4) Plato’s Allegory of the Cave (in the Republic) describes a line of men chained in an underground cave, such that they cannot move their heads or feet. The cave opens at the top, all along its length. A fire burns behind them. On a wall behind the men, and in front of the fire, people walk. The shadows on the wall in front are the only experience the chained men have of the people behind. The men believe that the shadows they see are the reality. If a man is freed, and shown the fire, (and the people behind) he would be blinded, till he gets used to it. His initial discomfort may make him want to discard reality. Similarly if someone who has been freed, and got used to reality goes back into the cave, he would initially have difficulty in (re)adjusting to the darkness. Plato himself explains the meaning of the allegory and its symbols “…the prison-house is the world of sight, the light of the fire is the sun, and … you (may) interpret the journey upwards to be the ascent of the soul into the intellectual world…in the world of knowledge the idea of good appears last of all, and is seen only with an effort; and, when seen, is also inferred to be the universal author of all things beautiful and right…the immediate source of reason and truth in the intellectual; and that this is the power upon which he who would act rationally…must have his eye fixed.”(Plato) Plato’s doctrine of Rationalism states that universal ideas exist even before people experience them. From the allegory I understand that reality is unchanging and fixed, but our awareness of it depends on our perception and our hunger to know the truth, irrespective of obstacles that come in the way of acquiring this knowledge. Works Cited Burnham, Douglas & Fieser, James The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy Rene Descartes (1596-1650), retrieved on 17th Dec 2007 from < http://www.iep.utm.edu/d/descarte.htm> Nolan, Lawrence, Descartes’ Ontological Argument in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2001, revised 2006, retrieved on 17th Dec 2007 from < http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/descartes-ontological/> Physics Forums Philosophy: Materialism versus Idealism, retrieved on 17th Dec 2007 from < http://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=2677> Plato extract of Republic from Steven Kreis’ Plato, The Allegory of the Cave in The History Guide, Lectures on Modern European Intellectual History, modified in 2004, retrieved on 17th Dec 2007 from Radical Academy, The, The Philosophy of Aristotle in Classic philosophers: The Great Thinkers of Western Philosophy, retrieved on 17th Dec 2007 from Thornton, Stephen, Berkeley’s Theory of Reality in The Journal of the Limerick Philosophical Society, 1987, retrieved on 17th Dec 2007 from Read More