Is the flag really blowing? A look at perceptions and reality.

[GabrieltheCelt]

In this hand I hold the red pill...

  So just what is real?  Do our perceptions help or hinder us?  I see a flag blowing on a pole but a stranger is standing facing the direction of the wind and so cannot see the flag blowing.  But both are correct when I say the flag was blowing and she says there was no flag.  What did we see?  How about if I place, say, a spoon in a glass of ordinary tap water.  What happens?  I know from experience with metal spoons that they're difficult to break in to two pieces.  But as I placed it in the water, it did break clean in to two pieces right at the water's edge.  Is this all nonsense or is it non-sense; non-sense meaning it doesn't fit easily into our pre-conceived ideas that we have superimposed on reality.  Stated otherwise; we create our realities.  Take this forum as an example.  There is no GabrieltheCelt.  What you are interacting with is merely a created figment of his creators mind.  In turn, GabrieltheCelt reacts with other creators' creations.  But are they real?  Perhaps some are more real than others.  That is, some are more true to their creator's personalities than others are.  When we stop to think about it, the complexities of our perceptions are kind of scary because again-what is real?  What is reality? 

 Who will follow me down the rabbit hole?

[scamandrius]

Well, according to Kant via the categorical imperative, since it is imagined, it therefore has ontological reality.  So, even if Gabriel the Celt is fictious and created, it is still real.

Why the philosophy?  We're not trying to use this as a possible defence at a future criminal trial, are we?

[GabrieltheCelt]

Well, according to Kant via the categorical imperative, since it is imagined, it therefore has ontological reality.  So, even if Gabriel the Celt is fictious and created, it is still real.

Why the philosophy?  We're not trying to use this as a possible defence at a future criminal trial, are we?

If there is no trial, does that mean there is no crime?  How's that for a Zen koan? 

 I've been reading about Quantum Mechanics, Zen Buddhism and Viktor Frankl's Mans Search For Meaning.  I also saw the documentary "What The Bleap Do We Know?"  As a Christian, obviously there's an Ultimate Reality, but there are millions of small or other realities that we (or rather our central nervous system) creates that may or may not be real.  I know, I know; it's a strange hobby of mine, but I enjoy this type of philosophizing.  But judging by the amount of arguing that goes on here, I'd say we're all philosophers of one type or another.

[ozgeorge]

Do our perceptions help or hinder us?

Both.

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