Thinking is part of reality
 

Thinking is part of reality

Our educational system and our culture lie to us. We are taught by our educational system and by our culture that there is thinking and there is reality and that thinking’s job is to discover reality; never informing us that reality and thinking go together, one is not separated from the other. Reflexivity is a concept that informs us that thinking is part of reality.

In the natural sciences truth is of the utmost importance because knowledge of reality is a precondition for success. In human affairs there are shortcuts to success—one can lie, manipulate, spin, and use force to gain success. Thus in human affairs truth often takes a back seat.

In his book “Open Society” George Soros speaks of many things; one important concept is ‘reflexivity’. “I started thinking in terms of reflexivity nearly fifty years ago. It may be interesting to recall how I arrived at the idea. It was through the footnotes of Karl Popper’s “Open Society and its Enemies”…I started to apply the concept of reflexivity to the understanding of social affairs, and particularly of financial markets, in the early 1960s before evolutionary systems theory was born…”

The first chapter of this book, wherein he explains this concept, can be found at http://www.businessweek.com/chapter/soros.htm.

Re: Thinking is part of reality
 

Could you describe something that isn't part of reality?

Re: Thinking is part of reality
 

Maybe you're confusing that what are thinking about is not necessarily reality. I can imagine a unicorn. Does the unicorn exist in the physical world? No. Does my thought of a unicorn exist in the physical world? Yes. I doubt there is much debate regarding that point.

Re: Thinking is part of reality
 

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Could you describe something that isn't part of reality?

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Descartes is a philosopher who has been a fundamental influence on Western thought. He is the fellow that came up with the saying "I think therefore I am". He concluded that the essence of humans is thinkinging and that matter and thinking are two seperate realities. We learned from this that there is reality out there and our mind tries to discover what this reality is never thinking that the reality one discovers contains our thought. In other words reality and thought are seperate.

Re: Thinking is part of reality
 

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Maybe you're confusing that what are thinking about is not necessarily reality. I can imagine a unicorn. Does the unicorn exist in the physical world? No. Does my thought of a unicorn exist in the physical world? Yes. I doubt there is much debate regarding that point.

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The point I am trying to make is that there is nothing that we know that does not contain our thoughts. This means that there is not a reality separate from our thoughts.


There are many theories of truth but the correspondence theory of truth is part of our common sense here in America (I restrict my statements to America because I do not know other nations; however, I am convinced that such is true in all nations).

“Correspondence theories claim that true beliefs and true statements correspond to the actual state of affairs… Correspondence theory traditionally operates on the assumption that truth is a matter of accurately copying "objective reality" and then representing it in thoughts, words and other symbols.” (Quickie from Wiki) This theory implies that there is a reality and that our task is to recognize that reality. Truth is a representation that we create in our mind indicating what reality really is.

Most Americans fail to recognize that thinking and reality are inseparable.

Re: Thinking is part of reality
 

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Truth is a representation that we create in our mind indicating what reality really is.

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This does not necessitate thought not also being "reality".

Could you give an example of this faulty thinking you describe leading to an erroneous conclusion? Then maybe we'd get a better sense of what you're actually saying.

Re: Thinking is part of reality
 

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This does not necessitate thought not also being "reality".

Could you give an example of this faulty thinking you describe leading to an erroneous conclusion? Then maybe we'd get a better sense of what you're actually saying.

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black people are subhuman, etc., if this belief is taken for granted in society, society will be very different than if people believe blacks and whites are (more or less) totally equal in capabilities.

so the actual fact doesn't really matter as much as what the consensus is. also note that in the racist society, blacks actually will be much stupider than whites. I mean, imagine how blacks as a group will do on standarized tests when blacks as a group are not taught to read/write.

Re: Thinking is part of reality
 

what... how is this arrived at by lack of realization that "thinking and reality are inseparable"?

Re: Thinking is part of reality
 

All that exists IS energy.

Everything we "see" is an illusion. There is nothing inherently wrong with illusions, so long as we are not fooled into thinking they are "real".

Everything is made up of one invisible energy. This energy has always existed and always will. It can't be destroyed nor created. Since we have learned to manipulate its "form" (vibration, frequency) mankind has forgotten what is real and now depends on that which is fake.

There are infinite degrees of vibration and frequency. The "poles" are LOVE and HATE.

Love is truth because it unites us as one. Hate is death because it separates us from being one.

Re: Thinking is part of reality
 

[ QUOTE ]
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Could you describe something that isn't part of reality?

[/ QUOTE ]

Descartes is a philosopher who has been a fundamental influence on Western thought. He is the fellow that came up with the saying "I think therefore I am". He concluded that the essence of humans is thinkinging and that matter and thinking are two seperate realities. We learned from this that there is reality out there and our mind tries to discover what this reality is never thinking that the reality one discovers contains our thought. In other words reality and thought are seperate.

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Descartes claimed that the "I" that is the subject of the cogito (which is the claim that whenever I am thinking then I know or can be certain that I exist) is essentially a thinking thing. Descartes did not claim that humans are essentially thinking things. A human being for Descartes is a combination of mind and body, and not just a thinking thing.

Thinking things and corporeal things are two separate substances for Descartes, not two separate 'realities' (I'm not quite sure what that even means). Both substances are part of reality.

Philosophers traditionally distinguish between the 'external' world, or the world outside the mind, and the contents of the mind, but I do not know any philosopher who denies that thinking is a part of reality (although philosophers may disagree about what thinking itself is).