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How do we really know, that that
which we see,
-
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 birth onwards,
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Black and white movies are shown
here non-stop
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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,
-
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 akin to the brave Keanu Reeves
in the "Matrix",
-
in the scene where he wakes up in
real world for the first time.
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And worst of all,
-
if our ancient Neo were to
return to his friends
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and tell them that the world
as they know it
-
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 previously
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 belonged.
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However, this does not mean
diligently donating
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to victims of natural disasters
-
or serving soup to the homeless
at Christmas.
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Just as the real meaning of "materialism",
-
isn't the "My house, My boat, My
investment advisor" song sung by Madonna.
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Yuppie Lifestyle means.
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Materialism is the philosophical
countermovement to idealism.
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Idealism sees the origin
of reality in the "idea",
-
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