a query for the masses...or lets have a discussion...

[areyouin]

is what we feel with our senses reality or is it entirely an illusion? for example: on a hot day there often appears to be water on the road in the distance. or when a straw is placed into water it appears to bend. could it be then that even more or all of reality is just a 'mirage'. one that our own mind creates? or that is created by some

Comments

[anoddchild]

that is why the existentialists say that descartes is full of shit with his "i think therefore I am" stuff. Well your mind plays tricks on you...so they say it's all about what you experience, that must be your reality, because that's all you can judge is what happens to you. Even if your senses are fucked up, that's still real, to you. Because it happened to you. I think therefore I am is too inward-looking. Existentialist thought connects you to everyone in the cosmos.

[areyouin]

where is the truth then? if each person has a different experience and in fact a different reality then which one is right? is there a concept of the truth or 'the good' in existentialism?

[seanomatic]

That entirly depends on what your definition of truth is. If you believe that everything you experiance is the truth then it is simply electrical impulses interpreted by your brain. If your in line with relativistic thinking, the belief that truth is purly based on perspective and opinion, then what you believe is the truth and thats all. So where is the truth? That is up to you.

You pose the question "is what we feel the truth or a illusion." I would say it is neither, its what our brains believe is going on. whether our brains are lying/being fooled is something we must answer indivdualy.

(Yes I know that's splitting hairs but it's my answer)

[areyouin]

is there a universal truth though? are we all observing the same truth but interpreting it differently? are there people that interpret the actual truth incorrectly?

i follow you on the electrical impulses bit. that is an arguement that there is no need for a soul and that all of what we feel and see is chemical and electrical.