What is Real?

            A much discussed topic in philosophy is the idea of what “real” is. To me, I think that people look too far into this topic. The concept of “real” isn’t something that actually exists. Real is just a word defined by humans to represent all of the things that humans are able to perceive with their senses. Real is also a relative term. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard people say, “Well how do we know if what we are experiencing is the real reality?” This is absurd! What we see, feel, touch, hear, and smell is real because that is all we can conceive is to be true. Maybe there is more than what exists in the universe, but these things would be in completely different reality. So I’d say that some of the arguments in are a bit pointless.

            There is all this talk in the book about examining things that are possible and impossible. What is the point of examining things like this? There are just two categories: real and unreal. The “squircle” is considered to be in the impossible section in the book and a unicorn is something that is considered possible. Both of these things are just unreal, and that’s all it amounts to. It’s kind of like when people say there is a sixty percent chance of rain. The reality is that there is always a fifty percent chance of rain. Either it will or it won’t. Likewise, things are either real or unreal. That’s it!

            I was actually just getting into a discussion with people in my dorm lobby about the topics dreams and alternate realities. When it comes to dreams, everyone surprisingly agreed with me in saying that dreams are actually a reality. All we experience during the day is just perception from our mind. Dreams are the same way; you just don’t have to rely on your senses. Also, Gabriel Elders asked me, “If this was all a simulation, would this be real?” I would have to say that yes, it would be real……real to us. That is not denying the fact that there would be another reality outside of this one. It is just that the one outside of ours is something that we can’t perceive at the moment. Therefore it is not real to us.

            So, I know that this isn’t a popular opinion among philosophers because it is too simplistic. But life is as simplistic as you want to make it. When you’re looking at a concept like “real,” it all comes down to the fact that it is a concept that we formulated into a word to make it seem like the concept itself exists in itself. But the fact of the matter is it doesn’t exists, we only think it does, because we can comprehend the idea. So, I guess my final thought on the matter is that “reality” is a concept which exists as only an idea and is determined by what we perceive.