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How Do We Know What Ultimate Reality Is?
- Thread starter Sunstone
- Start date
Mr. Hair
Renegade Cavalcade
The ultimate reality is, and is not. Anything else, would be something else. I don't think I could describe or define it.Sunstone said:
I don't think we can. In the Tao Te Ching, more then once a question is asked along these lines, 'How can I know this?' with the answer being 'Like so!' or 'By looking within myself.' Any knowledge, if it can even be called that, would be incomplete and subjective, and highly personal.Sunstone said:
standing_on_one_foot
Well-Known Member
Yes, even, although that would already be making an assumption. But you'd never know anything, and there's always some doubt. You might, perhaps, be able to say that something exists, but certainty is asking a lot. About the best you can do is "This is the way the Universe appears to be..." Which is, of course, a perfectly good answer for everyday purposes.Sunstone said:
A
angellous_evangellous
Guest
Sunstone said:
Defined as such, I see no reason why we can't find the ultimate reality - but why would it be called "ultimate" if it were readily attainable? When you say "ultimate" I suspect that many of us hear a Platonic ultimate - something transendent but real, like God, who is unattainable.
bigvindaloo
Active Member
Sunstone said:
The material universe is ultimately real because we can reach out and touch it. But is there something beyond this? What about knowledge of relationships A to B. What about pain. If there is a reality where our mental universe cannot go eg echolocation in bats, seeing colours animals with more than three colour cones can, it is inconsequential for us. I do not think for our species that ultimate reality is a worthwhile concept. I expect we will continue to live in increasing abstraction forever.
Sunstone said:
I don't think that qualifies as an 'ultimate'; after all, the 'input' that we all have is subjective. I would imagine that we all have a slightly different 'take' on reality. (a simple but obvious example being that of colour blind people - as I am, with blue/greens, and people who see colours perfectly).
Strange thing (totally coincidental). At college, I have an exam tomorrow (which I am partly dreading
) in which the concept of the appreciation of colours plays a large part.Quote from my book (well in my own words; the book is at the college): the colour that we see on a computer screen (and for that matter on a printed sheet) is not the 'true colour'. The only way of ensuring that we can reproduce true colour is using Pantone colour charts (where, for each colour, there is a predefined 'quantity of colour mixes' to ensure correct reproduction).
Ãsahættr
Active Member
Although I don't personally hold this view, it could be argued that the "ultimate reality" could be known if we could reduce the assumptions that it is necessary to make to the point where they become tautologies (assumptions like "there is a Universe out there, it is not a figment of my imagination").
Myself, I think that it will always be necessary to make certain assumptions.
Myself, I think that it will always be necessary to make certain assumptions.
Ãsahættr
Active Member
Seyorni said:
We can't know ultimate reality from both relativity and quantum mechanics. They have different descriptions of what the Universe is at a fundamental level.
sandy whitelinger
Veteran Member
Sunstone said:
Whatever I say it is.
Sunstone said:
Because I say so. :areyoucra
An unhelpful concept.Sunstone said:
Jay said:
Coupled with an unhelpful reply for one who is seeking to know the truth of it?
You might have no interest in the search, Jay, or may have given up or chosen to sacrifice such ideas for more wordly, impermanent ones, but we can't all agree that the most worthwhile thing to do. What is the point of Science if not to uncover Ultimate Reality? Is not Nature the ultimate reality to a Naturalist?