WEBVTT

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How do we really know, that that 
which we see,

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touch and taste really exists?

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What is reality?

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The objects or how we perceive them?

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Do we see the world as its is, 
or is the world what it is,

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because we perceive it as such?

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Let's imagine the following:

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We are in a cave, deep underground.

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There is no visible daylight.

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In this cave, people are tied 
to chairs in such a way

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that they can only look at the cave wall.

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From the time 
they are born,

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they are shown black-and-white 
movies continuously.

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The audience believes that the film
is a true reflection of reality.

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What sounds like an experiment
from the 3rd Reich,

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is actually a 2000-year-old mind game,

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conceived by Socrates' star pupil:

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Plato!

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Now suppose,

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that one of these bold youngsters 
actually escapes from the cave

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and sees the three-dimensional, colourful 
world for the first time.

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How would he feel?

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Probably similar to the brave Keanu Reeves
in the "Matrix",

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in the scene where he wakes up in
real world for the first time.

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And worst of all,

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if our ancient Neo were to 
return to his friends

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and tell them that the world 
as they know it

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isn't real…

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then he would be dismissed as a madman.

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According to Plato, our reality
is based on 'ideas'

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Objects, and how we experience them,
are only their images.

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However, for Plato the term 'idea'
represented more.

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It was about the essence of all things,

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that which we saw 
as part of an ideal world

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and that which we recalled from memory.

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What he pioneered with this is a doctrine

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called "idealism",

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to which Leibnitz and Kant 
later also subscribed to.

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However, this does not mean 
diligently donating

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to victims of natural disasters

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or serving soup to the homeless 
at Christmas.

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Just as the real meaning of "materialism",

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isn't the "My house, My boat, My 
investment advisor" song sung by Madonna

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or the meaning of the Yuppie Lifestyle.

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Materialism is the philosophical 
countermovement to idealism.

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Idealism sees the origin 
of reality in the "idea",

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whereas with materialism "matter" 
is decisive.

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Thus, reality arises due to the 
effect of the environment

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and not by the way in which 
we perceive it.

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To the question "What is?" 
materialism answers:

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Only matter.

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The world exists how it is

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and we must conform to its laws.

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Sounds bleak in the long run, though,
doesn't it?

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So, are we just the ball
in a cosmic pinball machine then?

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So where does reality lie?

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Within us or out there?

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This game ends in a draw