Saturday, February 13, 2010

Abstraction

Dictionary: re·al·i·ty

1.The quality or state of being actual or true.
2.The totality of all things possessing actuality, existence, or essence.
3.That which exists objectively and in fact: Your observations do not seem to be about reality.

I’ve had a problem with all three attempts at defining it. When is something true? Is it when you can feel, touch, observe, measure, contemplate and deduce? Is this material life a reality , with the law of conversation of energy an eternal commandment? If it is, the above three definitions automatically makes sense.

And yet, the mind desires a higher order, and a higher meaning. Perhaps, an eternal nothingness, or a life beyond this. How can this life be a reality, when it’s hazy, and each moment gains colour as it goes through your mortal grasp , from the shrouded future into the bleakness of the past? The thinking man defines mortality, as an interruption of the eternal.

What is real, is absolute. If the universe is dynamic, and life temporary, then by pre-definition, life cannot be real. If you believe this world to be unreal, you still cannot stop eating and breathing, for you need to live, and we are bound to this world.
If you believe that being bound to this world by needs, is an extensive definition of reality, its far from a satisfying. Nutrition and sustenance , are needs, which we as animals, fulfill. A need, and therefore its satisfaction, does not warrant a reality. A need is different from a fact. The society, money, relationships, oxygen, are needs, which an animal must become slave to, but it is by no means a reality.

If what is eternal, is real, then death in itself (and what lies beyond) is unreal for it is interrupted by life. We have a paradox, for then, what is reality?

Perhaps an objective approach to reality is impossible. For, if it is objective, it is mechanical and material , and the intellect desires to transcend that.

The universe has formed from and on, physical laws and universal constants, a wholly tangible universe. From it, the birth of predictable structure and order , and hence life. Life led to the birth of this observer, the observer observed , while waiting for his cognitive ability to develop. From the acts of cognition and observation, he gained knowledge.

With knowledge, came the power to discover , to learn, to understand this world and to define it as his reality.

  • Knowledge becomes a mere tool, to control the universe.
  • This view of reality satisfies only the materialist.
  • A subjective view of Reality is impossible.
  • Reality exists without an observer.

An observer is required to define reality, for the universe cannot exist without an observer. What he perceives , exists . As Descartes put it, you can only ever be sure of yourself and your doubt. The universe, a reflection of his own cognition. The structure perceived in the universe, is a reflection of the observer’s organized mind/consciousness.

  • This view invariably leads to solipsism. Not that I complain.
  • The universe doesn’t exist without the observer , and the observer cannot exist without the universe , a tangled hierarchy then.
  • Knowledge is a reflection of the observer’s own mind.
  • The world is illusionary, the only reality is self awareness.
  • Objective reality is impossible.
  • Human consciousness transcends science and reason, and hence, to explain it, the invocation of a universal consciousness is required, which is then mirrored in the observer, for the self becomes a reality.