What does this image depict you think? Whatever your answer may be, I'm pretty sure mine will be different. Even if I claim to "know" what it is, would I necessarily be right?
And this is where the vertigo begins......................
During a morning run, just an average day, suddenly I had a surprising thought.
Following behind another runner as he dipped in and out of view, it dawned on me to ask: when I don't see him, does he still exists?
At any moment he could veer off out of sight, take another route, and as far as I would be concerned, he would cease to "exist".
Further along my path I climb a set of stairs and at the top of those stairs, my track goes past a huge hole in the ground. I run on the edge of the hole which has a 20 metre drop, and in order not to get vertigo, I have to look straight ahead and focus on the track up ahead. This lead me to ponder the following: I could focus on the ground under my feet, (now) the hole behind me as I passed it, (the past) or the path up ahead, (the future), but I could not do all at the same time. Switching between the three positions seemed to make me dizzy.
Which of these three positions would constitute "reality"?
When we use the word "reality" what do we actually mean, and is there an objective reality untouched by humans interactions?
Here are some suggestions of an "objective reality": The world or the state of things as they actually exist, as opposed to an idealistic or notional idea of them.
Another: In a wider definition, reality includes everything that is and has been, whether or not it is observable or comprehensible. A still more broad definition includes everything that has existed, exists, or will exist.
For some of us it's easy, no philosophy necessary: reality is that which you can touch, smell, see, hear, or taste.
If sense-data is the criteria for what is real, then what about imagination, inspiration, love, ideas, etc.?
Are they not also "real"? Descartes said; "I think, therefore I am". Spinoza said: "Mind and body are one." John Locke: "Everything we know is gained from experience".
Leibniz suggested : "There are two kinds of truths: Truths of reasoning and truths of fact".
And on it goes, there are many theories as to what "reality" is it seems.
OK, so there I was....running, with all these thoughts doing their own bit of "running" in my mind.
I came to the conclusion that I had to just decide to focus on my path just a bit further up the track, since both looking at my feet and behind me made me loose my stride. Could it be that reality consists of the past, the now and the future all at the same time?
It's just the focus that shifts.
Could it be that the perception of what is real to you make it real and if something exist to you, that is the state of things..........for you... and maybe, that's all that's needed?
If "Man is the measure of all things" (Protagoras) then what mankind experiences is highly subjective and no two experiences will be identical just like no two sets of fingerprints are.
"Reality", one may then possibly conclude, is in the experience of the beholder.
(This image is a photo of bubbly water flowing across some rocks)
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