Definition Essay - Defining Reality

What is reality? What is known? These questions are constantly being reviewed keeping people anxiously waiting for the real answer. The Matrix is a popular movie dealing with many philosophical ideas from, Gods, Beauty, Reality, and existence. The Matrix deals with an intelligent “computer hacker,” Neo, who questions many things such as reality as he lives two different lives day vs. night. With that being said, Neo starts to ponder how does he know what is real, true, or all knowing. As humans we face this challenge everyday, how do we actually “know?” We know because of our senses, evidence, observations, assumption, and Epistemology.

How does one not know if there is another aspect of catergorie that exist that we don't know as well as how do we know that our reality is a reality?

One of the most fundamental questions in philosophy is the one of appearance vs. reality. We find ourselves asking the question of what is genuinely “real,” and what is viewed merely as just an “appearance,” and not real? It becomes difficult when we assume there is a difference in the two to determine which is which. Generally, what we label as “real” is regarded as external

that you exist is proof that you in fact exist as how can you doubt

In particular, I think the concept of "illusion" is causes some problems here. On one level, we think of illusion as the opposite of real. This is a trap. Yes, it is true that illusions are, by definition, not real. However from another, higher perspective, of course illusions are real. From a comprehensive perspective of everything, there is nothing that is not real and there is nothing that is not natural. I think that this is important enough to repeat:

One of the most fundamental questions in philosophy is the appearance vs. reality. We find ourselves asking the question of what is genuinely "real," and what is viewed merely as just an "appearance," and not real? It becomes difficult when we assume there is a difference in the two to determine which is which. Generally, what we label as "real" is regarded as external and eternal. What we refer to as just an appearance is regarded as temporary and internal. Many early as well as modern day authors use

How do we know what is real? This is a question asked by everyone at some point during his or her life. Humanity’s ability to discern reality from fantasy is something we take for granted and sometimes we fail to question. These theories were discussed by great philosophers like Plato and Descartes and were more recently brought mainstream by the hit film The Matrix. While The Matrix brings up similar questions as these philosophers, there are also a few different ideas the movie would like the viewer to consider and draw their own thoughts from.

Over many years many different philosophers have taken a step deciding the age-old question of what is reality. Also many movies have taken their own perspective on what reality is as well. Many philosophers like Rene Descartes, George Berkeley and Robert Nozick and also in the director and writers the movie The Matrix Lana and Lily Wachowski all take their own perspective of reality in a certain way and put it in their own words. Descartes mediator, Georgia Berkeley's principles of human knowledge, Robert Nozick the experience of the machine and the movie The Matrix are all examples of taking a swing at reality and the existence of oneself. When you take a look at the story that George Nozick wrote witches the experience of the machine it goes into depth on an alternate reality.

How do we know we are not dreaming, living in a Platonic cave, or trapped in some sort of matrix? From the perspective of epistemology, these questions can – and have been – argued from any perspective. In my opinion though, I would say that we can prove that the world we are experiencing is real based on our senses, on objects within our reality, and even based on our dream states. Our senses tell us that the world around us is real – the things we touch, we taste, we smell, we feel, we hear; these things are all around us, with multiple senses heightened at any given moment. The consistency of this truth never wavering.

Perception is not reality. Technology that once fooled our eyes are evolving into complex machines and illusions that makes it ever harder to distinguish the real from fake. From a magician’s visual trickeries to eventually complete simulation, our perceptions, starting from our eyes, are becoming impossible to put our faith in.

In conclusion, for now we have to believe about the Big Bang. People who study the Big Bang are trying to find something else in the Universe that can explain how the Universe started or how space is still expanding today. The most recent saying is that the Universe exploded and that space keeps

In this article, Peter Russell shares his piece of mind and tells us about his different perspectives in what reality is. His priority subject is that of the “Dreaming the World” where he talks about the theory that our lives could just be a long-time dream that we have yet to awake from, once we die we will awake. Something really interesting that Russell points out in his article is the theory of Plato’s allegory of the cave. This allegory is based on the idea that the objects we perceive to be real, are merely shadows of them. He states his own perspective in the ‘From Plato’ section, “Although Plato believed the real world was a world of ideas and eternal perfect forms, his story is still pertinent to our own experience. Most of us assume

The meaning of reality is the world or the state of things, because they actually exist, instead of an idealistic or nominal idea of them. In my understanding, I think reality is things occurring in the existing space that might be different from our expectations or predictions. Sometimes, we would like to imagine or predict the perfect condition of the event which would happen in the future before it actually occur; or we would like to desire the event which would happen in the future that is our expectation and prediction. Besides that, people have two-faced are dishonest or false, who would like to present “one face” at one time that is in front of their best friends and “another face” at another time that is in front of another people in order to reach their expectation and survival. However, there do not have any exceptions even in front of their closest. Unfortunately, things are not often satisfactory.

Have you ever pondered what may lie beyond our solar system? Perhaps you’ve decided that there is no way anything could be out there, in the empty, seemingly endless void we call space. However, perhaps there is other life out there, life more advanced than us, perhaps life just now exiting what to us would be the stone age, the possibilities are truly infinite. Personally, I believe there are other beings out there in the vast expanse.

Philosophers have always been concerned to establish a means by which the world can be understood objectively. The problem is that it is difficult to establish the extent to which the physical world exists independently of perception (Brock and Mares, 2007, p. 34). Philosophers identify a ‘perceptual barrier’ preventing knowledge of whether or not what can be perceived is an accurate or literal representation of the true nature of reality; a barrier known in philosophical discourse as the “veil-of-perception” (Bennett, 1968, p. 98). In 1689 Locke wrote An Essay Concerning Human Understanding as a means of explaining this barrier, using a theory categorised by philosophers as “a form of representational realism” (Brock & Mares, 2007, p. 49). In order to analyse the potential (or otherwise) of this approach, a philosopher needs to understand what Locke intended by his thesis of primary, secondary and tertiary qualities and consider the extent to which these may be inherently part of an object, and thereby the degree to which that object might correspond in reality with the way it is perceived. Locke’s work has been significantly critiqued (either to extend the ideas, or to refute them) ever since its publication. Currently the technologically augmented insights of information theory responses to Locke’s Essay use scientific evidence as a basis for both accepting and refuting Locke’s theory, making it a perennially stimulating subject.