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From: shawn@cuug.ab.ca (Nicole F. Shaw)
Subject: Re: Reality...???
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Date: Thu, 1 Dec 1994 02:08:15 GMT
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hlidskialf@ins.infonet.net wrote:
: In article <3b9tpi$1ci@ixnews1.ix.netcom.com>, prem@ix.netcom.com (Prem Sobel) writes:
: >In <3b9a0o$9rb@insosf1.infonet.net> hlidskialf@ins.infonet.net writes: 
: >
: >>
: >>In article 
: ><Pine.A32.3.91b.941126001505.65028H-100000@homer05.u.washington.edu>, 
: >Timothy Jones <timelord@u.washington.edu> writes:
: >...
: >>>	But how *can* we agree as to what things are real, if we haven't 
: >>>agreed on what 'real' means? It seems that words innevitably 
: >double-back 
: >
: >>I think it might be easier to figure out what 'real' means by 
: >considering
: >>what things we agree are and are not real.  For example, I think
: >>everybody agrees that the Sun is real, and everybody agrees that
: >>the aliens (in my dream)  who disguised their spaceship as a
: >>shopping mall and tried to lure unsuspecting Earthlings inside to
: >>be their slaves are not real.  But what is the difference between
: >>the aliens and the Sun.
: >>
: >>My answer is that the aliens all disappeared when I woke up, but the 
: >Sun
: >>did not disappear when I went to bed, so the Sun is real and those 
: >aliens
: >>are not real.  Thus the best definition of reality I've seen yet is
: >>"Reality is that which does not go away when I stop believing in it."
: >

: But I've only dreamed about those aliens once, so I'm pretty sure they
: are not real:-)
: >Prem

This argument boils down to one of epistimology.  How do we know what is 
real and what is not real?

It can be argued that since we do not have any definitive way of defining 
reality, we can not be sure of anything.  I can argue that I am just a 
brain in a vat.  All of my experiences, that I call 'real' are just 
stimuli which are fed in to my brain, and potentially have nothing to do 
with what is actually real.  Some mad scientist is causing me to belive 
that this keyboard on which I am typing is real, when it is merely 
stimuli fed into my brain.  When I dream of aliens, my dreams are also 
merely stimuli fed into my brain.  Who is to say the keyboard is more 
real then the aliens (they are both merely stimuli fed into the 'brain in 
a vat').

Since we cannot know without doubt what is actually real, compared to the 
imaginary, we must act on our perceptions of reality, and treat them as 
actual reality.  This would mean that during the dream of aliens, when 
the aliens are percieved as 'real' they are to be dealt with as if they 
are reality, and that when I percieve this keyboard as 'real' it is to be 
dealt with as if it is actual reality.

