How can we even regard reality itself as real?

[sussybaka]

How can we assume reality is real if the only reference we have for knowing something is real is reality itself? Isn't it epistemic circularity and all that stuff?

 

[Forever Sleep]

I guess we can't know- you're right. We're trying to describe something we don't understand at all. Words are too small really for existential stuff.

Does it make any difference though? It surely doesn't in this experience of life... Whether it's real or not- when you stub your toe- it hurts. I suppose- if you are convinced this isn't real- you could try and tell yourself that pain is an illusion.

Honestly- my brain is too small to comprehend this but I get the sense that- even for people who suspect this isn't real- they still think SOMETHING is real. Like- their awareness that this might not be real is the real reality... If that makes sense... If that's not real either- then I don't know- it's just dreams within dreams.

Still- what do you think the consequences are? In this life for example- if this isn't real and some people figure that out- does that mean they can 'cheat' the system? Like in the film, 'The Matrix'?

If you believe there is an afterlife- are there consequences there? Presumably- if there is some being or intelligence behind our lives- then- whether reality is physically real or not still doesn't seem to matter. If that's the case- this entity has either engineered a biological reality or a virtual reality and spawned us in it to play it's sadistc little game. I guess it does depend on the end game though. If the objective of the game is to escape and the only way you can do that is to become 'enlightened' that none of this is actually real- then- maybe that works.

I don't know. Do you have an opinion on whether reality is real? Some people believe ONLY their reality is real and everything just disappears when they're not there. That's got to be a weird way to experience life...

 

[Twoped538]

The nature of reality is as difficult a topic as the nature of consciousness. Our "normal" reality feels pretty real real to me, in contrast with dreams.
I hope science will find out more about this. Until then, this subject remains an interesting one to discuss, but not much more than that.

 

[Giraffe]

I think, therefore I am.

That sentence describes the only thing you can know for certain. In the context of reality, how can you prove your not in a simulation? How can you prove that your not in the matrix? How can you prove you weren't created 5 seconds ago, and that your memories were fabricated with it?

The point is: Name one thing that you know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, absolutely must be a fact.

And the answer is: The only thing you can know for certain is that you are thinking this thought right now, and as such, you must exist. That you are real. Oh sure, you might be in a simulation, you might be in the matrix, you might have been created 5 seconds ago, but the point still stand. Regardless of how you view the world, politically, figuratively or literally, you exist. Beyond that, nothing can be known for certain.

 

[SexyIncél]

If nothing exists, then this question doesn't exist, no one asked it & no one can answer it

And if the questioner's an extreme skeptic, one who keeps denying regardless of what answer they're offered, then this isn't a question since it can't be answered. It only has the grammatical form of a question

Of course, extreme skepticism is a useful tactic when investigating things. (What does the universe look like if the thing you're investigating didn't exist?)

Understanding assumes something to understand. In fancier terms: epistemology assumes ontology

 

[kevinj430]

We can't, it only seems it is to us. We really could be the brain in a vat, but at the same time Descartes said "I think therefore I am"

 

[TheRottingContinues]

Descartes's "I think therefore I am" is such an amazing quote. We might not really "exist" as we think we exist. We might be in a multiverse, a simulation, a Boltzmann brain, whatever. But one thing is for certain: right now, we can feel things and think things; therefore, we must somehow exist.