How do we know reality?

[Fuzzy12]

Originally Posted by midnightstar

I'm generally stuck around other people and there's nowhere quiet to go for a phone call without having one of the bosses hanging around.

I used to have that problem. I sometimes resorted to making private phone calls in the car.

However, you just have 5o make an appointment on the phone right? How would anyone listening to your phone call know that you are calling a mental health care provider?? They might figure out you are calling to make a doctor's appointment but they wouldn't know which doctor right?

And like DVD said calling your doctor is almost always accepted and tolerated.

[midnightstar]

Originally Posted by mildadhd

Who cleans Ebony's and Tigger's litter box?


m

I clean it but if Ebony and Tigger don't really exist, then how can I be sure that I'm not imagining their litter tray and the contents of the litter tray as well?

[Little Missy]

Originally Posted by midnightstar

I clean it but if Ebony and Tigger don't really exist, then how can I be sure that I'm not imagining their litter tray and the contents of the litter tray as well?

Give it a sniff. That ought to bring you back to reality.

[midnightstar]

Sometimes when I wake up though, I forget where I am, like last night I had a really vivid dream (or at least I think it was a dream) about having helped build the Titanic then somehow (can't remember details) get trapped on it and was shouting and knocking for help but nobody could see me or hear me.

Does anyone else do this? Wake up convinced what you dreamed was real and have to check that nothing actually happened?

[aeon]

Originally Posted by Little Missy

Give it a sniff. That ought to bring you back to reality.

Classic.

[Little Missy]

Originally Posted by midnightstar

Sometimes when I wake up though, I forget where I am, like last night I had a really vivid dream (or at least I think it was a dream) about having helped build the Titanic then somehow (can't remember details) get trapped on it and was shouting and knocking for help but nobody could see me or hear me.

Does anyone else do this? Wake up convinced what you dreamed was real and have to check that nothing actually happened?

Copy this for your upcoming CBT therapy.

[unstableAngel]

Just wow....you completely blew my mind...i cant even wrap my head around it! i'll be ruminating for days, weeks, months....i'll let you know when i have an opinion..

[dormammau2008]

its like the cat in the box until ypu open it its both dead an alive until the doors open then one ofve the two will happen reality like time is subjitve but I do belive we have some level of control over both,,,by just being alive for one

[cwf1986]

There was a brilliant man who asked himself, "What do we know if we don't take any knowledge as a given". That's paraphrased a bit.

What he came up with is, "Cogito, ergo sum" otherwise known as the quote, "I think therefor I am". This man was Rene Descartes. Even if your senses are completely wrong and deceptive, in order to have any sort of doubt there you have to exist. The statement, "I do not exist" is contradictory because if that is true, there isn't an 'I' and the whole statement becomes nonsensical.

Nothing else can be known without accepting presuppositions and axioms. Some might call these statements of faith. There is no other solution to this sort of radical skepticism.

The field of philosophy that would most help you to answer that type of question is epistemology. Volumes upon volumes have been written on the subject and this is the kind of thing you could study for a lifetime if you so chose.

In addition to Descartes, you might want to look up Immanual Kant and Socrates. Start with Socrates's Allegory of the Cave, Arguably the foundation of Western Philosophy.

[midnightstar]

Originally Posted by cwf1986

There was a brilliant man who asked himself, "What do we know if we don't take any knowledge as a given". That's paraphrased a bit.

What he came up with is, "Cogito, ergo sum" otherwise known as the quote, "I think therefor I am". This man was Rene Descartes. Even if your senses are completely wrong and deceptive, in order to have any sort of doubt there you have to exist. The statement, "I do not exist" is contradictory because if that is true, there isn't an 'I' and the whole statement becomes nonsensical.

Nothing else can be known without accepting presuppositions and axioms. Some might call these statements of faith. There is no other solution to this sort of radical skepticism.

The field of philosophy that would most help you to answer that type of question is epistemology. Volumes upon volumes have been written on the subject and this is the kind of thing you could study for a lifetime if you so chose.

In addition to Descartes, you might want to look up Immanual Kant and Socrates. Start with Socrates's Allegory of the Cave, Arguably the foundation of Western Philosophy.

I have never been able to get my head around philosophy, never have and never will

[cwf1986]

^

If nothing else, just realize that there are things that have to be taken on faith for any truth to exist. Things like 'reason and logic exist' and 'our senses are at least somewhat reliable' for just a couple examples.

And if it makes you feel better, then keep in mind that many highly intelligent and brilliant people for thousands of years have racked their brains on this subject of 'how do we know anything' and still don't have a complete answer. You're in good company for people having asked this question.