Definitions of Reality

(ref . Wiki Discussions)

PHILOSOPHYLOVE OF WISDOM

• Understand the fundamentals of nature, ideas or thinking, knowledge, the good life, aesthetics, politics and God • Reality and Truth• Consciousness, Soul, Spirit

WHAT IS REAL

• The state of things as they actually exist• State (scale and dimensions,

space and time, observation)• Things (stuff or objects)• Exist (mental or physical)

TRUTH

• Correspondence of statement to what is real• Correspondence of model to what

is real: prediction vs creation; experience vs description• What is the best model?

RealityTwo Ontologic Approaches

• What exists: REALISM, independent of the mind

• What appears: PHENOMEONOLOGY, what (and how) it occurs in consciousness

THEOLOGY

• Study of the Gods• Sources include mythology,

reason, revelation• Now separated generally from

science

NATURAL PHILOSOPHY

• Study of nature and the physical universe• Focus on application of reason• Precursor of modern science• Originally included study of Gods

WAYS OF KNOWING

• Intuition• Revelation• Senses• Reason• Non-computable Sources

(Penrose)

Metaphysics vs Epistemology vs Science

• Metaphysics: study of what exists (idealism, materialism, dualism)

• Epistemology: Study of nature and scope of knowledge (empiricism, rationalism, constructivism)

• Science: use of empirical data to construct models that can predict the future

REASONDeduction vs Induction

• Deduction: Reasoning based on definitions, rules of logic & axioms. Validity not Truth

• Induction: Reasoning from general fact to a conclusion. Does not guarantee truth, but only likelihood. (Hume and Popper)

• Limits of mind or mathematical tools?

Scientific Method Issues

• Popper’s Falsifiability (problem with induction)

• Gödel's Theorem (incompleteness of formal logical systems)

• Measurement Precision (sensitivity to initial conditions results in deterministic chaos, e.g. weather)

• Laws or approximations

Causality

• Relationship between one event and another (necessary and sufficient)

• Determinism (orderly laws that specify transformation from one state to another that are in principle reversible, Newton’s laws)

• Indeterminism (laws can only predict likelihood of outcome, quantum theory)

• Emergence (sum is greater than parts)• Problem of free will in either case

World ViewWELTANSCHAUUNG

• Framework of beliefs and ideas through which one interprets and experiences the world

• Belief vs Truth (depends on what “is” is)• What is my world view (try to write it

down)• We will revisit at end of course• Rule: Each world view will be respected

Truths and Consequences of World View

• Idealist

• Materialist

• Dualist

• Other

Big Questions

• Time• Space• Matter, Energy, Nothingness (Vacuum?)• Complexity (reduction vs emergence)• Consciousness• Cosmology• Life• God