Questions tagged [reality]
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Does physical reality exist without an observer?
This question also considers principles of quantum physics.
When electrons or any other subatomic particles are "observed" or "measured", their wavefunction collapses to a certain ...
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Is there a difference between "true" and "real"?
Is there a difference between "true" and "real"? If so, what is the difference? I am asking because I have heard those words used interchangeably, but I am wondering if there is a ...
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How our brains create colors as qualia? [closed]
As we know, colors as we see them don’t actually exist out there in the world, they come from how our brains understand electromagnetic wavelengths. The sun and other light sources send out ...
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What does it mean to say "possible in reality?" [closed]
Consider the following truth table.
I am hungry
My eyes are closed
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Each row is possible. But that seems to me like an incomplete statement. Instead, I think it makes more sense ...
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Could you critique my statements below about connection between mind and reality? [closed]
I've thought about reality and how it connects to the mind. Starting from the only thing we can be certain about, our existence, and principle of causality. With those I've come up with the below ...
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Is probability physical or idealistic? Is probability an inherent part of nature/reality?
I asked this question a while back: Is entropy physical or idealistic?
Now, I am back to ask if the subject that entropy built around is inherently real i.e., probability in itself being inherent not ...
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What are all the uses of the word 'reality', that is, what does 'reality' mean?
Many people use the word 'reality' as if they know what they mean, but do they? What is the meaning of 'reality'? Also, what is the principle meaning of the word 'reality'?
EDIT - I was looking for ...
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Is the notion of a fuzzy reality coherent?
Can reality be fuzzy? If so, how would this look like?
In quantum mechanics, a particle can be in a superposition of two states before measurement. In the many worlds interpretation, this is neatly ...
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What do we mean when we ask "What's the – fundamental – nature of reality?" [duplicate]
This is a very popular question within metaphysics and I'd like to understand what do we are really mean with the question.
In particular, what do we mean when we use the words "fundamental" ...
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What do we deem conscious or not? Is it just sensations and experiences? What is the cutoff point to claim that something is conscious?
What I am trying to ask in particular is how do we know what is conscious and what is not just because something moves, breathes and interacts with the environment doesn't mean it is necessarily ...
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How to prove the world is real, and one isn’t just hallucinating everything? [duplicate]
I'm not asking whether other minds are real or not, I'm asking whether the whole shebang is "real".
Google Gemini says it's impossible to know/prove it, and basically says to "move on&...
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Is there some sort of disconnect between the math we use and our "observed phenomena" in reality?
So my question comes from two questions on this site one of them being my own, How small can we measure space? and Is the (surprising) applicability of mathematics to the physical world a brute fact ...
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How small can we measure space? [closed]
I got this question after looking into transcendental numbers and I noticed how there are some distinctions that should be made from numbers and reality especially in measurement of length for example ...
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Why is Philosophy not taught in schools or more widely studied?
(I am new to this section in stackexchange)
Is it because the subject is too vague to become a subject? Also, when I meet college students, I ask them what they study, I find them studying a wide rage ...
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So what is real? what do you think? [closed]
If you can't be 100 percent sure about your senses, how can you be sure that anything is real?
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Is there a work of fiction so "fictional", that is so different from our everyday reality, that there is absolutely nothing similar to it? [closed]
Can one produce/write a work of fiction that is so fictional that there is no connection to anything within the real world? If not, why?
And what I mean by connection is that there is no relation in ...
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Is there ‘reality’ after the death of the observer? Does this imply there are multiple ‘realities’?
I presume that, after death, there would not be any afterlife or any remains of the soul.
while I am alive, I have a certain perception or concept of the universe. I have a sense of space, time, ...
user72899
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Location of Soul
Colloquially, we often have a notion that souls are like some sort of ghosts or "cloud inside a bottle" that leave body after death.
I feel the notion of soul in a bit different way. I feel ...
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Can mathematical models be indistinguishable from the phenomena they model?
Mathematical models of the phenomena of the world, such as the weather, are used to make predictions about the outcome of the phenomena from an initial state.
These models are applied as computer ...
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Is consciousness universal?
I have just read "Why" by Philip Goff. He proposes that matter consists of conscious entities. Physics based on mathematics tells us what matter does, not what it is. This has implications ...
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Is reality a "societal construct"? [closed]
What does it mean to say reality actually exists? Is it a product of society? If time - the fourth dimension is a societal construct, then shouldn't reality also be one?
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Can ontic vagueness not exist?
As far as I can tell, I am going to buy a book on ontic vagueness to work out what it is, but I'm fairly sure it occurs when a vague term refers to something that itself is indeterminate, which may be ...
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What kinds of physical things exist mind independently?
Generally, it's said that a thing exists mind independently if it exists apart from our beliefs, concepts, cultural practices, etc.
Do door knobs exist mind independently? They're collections of ...
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Metaphysical theories for why physics has the structure it has
The laws of physics have an extremely rich structure. The more fundamental you go, the more complex it becomes (e.g. Quantum Mechanics is more complex (no pun) than Newtonian mechanics). This ...
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What is the lack of anything (including nothing)? [closed]
To clarify my question, I am not asking what is nothing, I am asking a more complex question, what is the lack of anything, which includes the absence of nothing (not anything), while assuming that ...
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Are there canonical strong arguments for Moore's "here is an hand" argument proving that you are not me?
If Moore is wrong about the external world a strange situation emerge: the very skeptical people that criticise him must be inside Moore's mind. Actually, if the critics are right, Moore himself must ...
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What is the definition of real?
What is the definition of the word "real"? For example, we can all agree that Harry Potter and unicorns are not real, while Mount Everest and Mars are real. Some people even say ...
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Circularity in definition of Real
I'm having a hard time understanding the adjective 'real'.
In some sense, we get that x is real iff x is in reality. So to say that y is a real boy, is to say that y is a boy, and y is in the ...
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AI paradox in DKIW hierarchy [closed]
You can check this link for basic info.
(Note: 'data', 'information', 'knowledge' and 'widsom' words will be mention as shortened with first letters in this question.)
In summary:
D is the basis of W....
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When is an illusion liberative?
I was thinking about cinema and how it might encourage us to see ourselves as movie stars in our own narratives, maybe like existential literature but without the sense of being trapped in that, and ...
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Will you appreciate my arguments against solipsism? [closed]
A month ago I wrote here. As time passed, I was able to collect some interesting arguments against solipsism in my piggy bank. Let's discuss them!
There is definitely me here. I can't exist alone by ...
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An object exist means what? And what is the relation of it with space and time?
If something exist mentally & physically, in both forms it is understandable that we have a Idea of it in mind as well as in reality or physically but , what about things which exists in the form ...
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Do objects exist as the way we think they do even when nobody sees them
Object permanence is the belief objects exist whether we see them or not.
However even if they exist, can we really claim they exist as an object that has certain colors, and thus claim they exist in ...
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What is the philosophy that deals with concepts being correctly fitted to reality or "carving reality at the joints"?
In philosophy of science thinkers sometimes speak of certain theoretical concepts "carving nature at its joints" (I think this might have been used prominently by Hilary Putnam but I can't ...
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How is Truth Different From Reality?
Is the whole question like "what is truth" just about finding definitions to things we know but can't put into words to explain (things that are currently ineffable). For example, everyone ...
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Can something real be an association to something else?
Can some real thing, that exist, be an association to another thing?
What does of the image or real thing causes an associative effect?
Exist ergo real?
i also see the problem with "there is"...
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"Truth" as a description of our cognition versus "truth" as a description of reality
In reading about the feud of foundationalism, infinitism and coherentism, there seems to be some arguments based on how cognition/reasoning works. However, an argument of the form (vaguely put by me) ...
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Does the imagination qualify as any form of evidence?
Suppose I believe in entities, aliens, God or higher intelligent being that are in communication with me. The catch is, there is no physical evidence for their existence. However, if such things ...
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What does William James mean here by representing the knowing in advance?
Let my reader suppose himself to constitute for a time all the reality
there is in the universe, and then to receive the announcement that
another being is to be created who shall know him truly. How ...
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Philosophical implications of entangled states (and the 2022 physics nobel prize)
FYI: For the 2022 Physics Noble Prize announcement, see here.
First, I realize the subjective nature of any potential answers or discussions regarding this question. In spite of that, I'm still ...
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Are there any relevant philosophers who’ve touched on the points raised?
Below is a summary of my thoughts on reality and human consciousness:
Man I watched Michio Kaku talk about quantum mechanics/spirituality and finished reading that declassified CIA document about ...
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Do "things" that are present depend on Dasein?
Do "things" that are present depend on Dasein? I have read Being and Time, but a very long time ago. I am not sure if I mean present at hand, but I do mean in general anything that exists in ...
user62727
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Is time fundamental like space or only a tool for measurement? [closed]
Time is to distance or acceleration what progression is to space. Time “exists” like distance as a measurement but is not ‘real’ like me, you or the earth that we stand. Time is a measurement of ...
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Has any philosophy in history coherently disambiguated the state of being “real” from being “existent”? Such that it’s broadly applicable to thoughts?
I suspect that things which simply exist are not bound by limits and are hence unlimited. According to economic thinking, real things are those which are scarce or limited by constraints of physical ...
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Is reality a matter of perspective?
Imagine a world like the movie The Matrix where everything people experience is controlled by a massive computer. Let us assume that in this virtual world, there are ogres but no gorillas. Consider ...
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Value of life as we disappear [closed]
If our lives don't last, then how can our lives have lasting value?
This question addresses the issue of how anybody could have a deeply meaningful life
if we all disappear and become like nothing.
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Is Baudrillard's "Simulacra and Simulation" just the "Allegory of the Cave"?
Am I missing something or is Baudrillard's "Simulacra and Simulation" just a wordy "Allegory of the Cave"?
To expand, reality is "crowdsourced", patterns occur, and we ...
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Is objectivity necessary for anything beside communication?
By "subjective", I mean something that occurs only in a single mind and cannot be shared even in principle. A common example is pain. You cannot feel someone else's pain. You might observe ...
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If we simulate a universe just like ours, is there any experiment simulated life could do to verify it is being simulated?
Akin to Einstein's principle of equivalence where the observer cannot tell if he or she is either in free fall or being accelerated (in a small enough region of spacetime); I'm wondering the same ...
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Belief, in 'divine madness'
Theia mania (Ancient Greek: θεία μανία) is a term used by Plato in his dialogue Phaedrus to describe a condition of divine madness (unusual behavior attributed to the intervention of a God).
Do ...
user61995