Re: What is reality?
[ QUOTE ]
If reality cannot be known without arbitrary assumptions then what is the point of discussing it? What then is the purpose of this forum?
[/ QUOTE ]
We only really need one metaphysical assumption before we can have useful discussion about reality, and that is that there exists an objective material world. This assumption proceeds basically through Ockham's Razor - it is very simple, and the alternative explanations of why our perceptions are similar are very complicated.
After that, even though reality can't be directly known, it can be modelled accurately. That's the job of science, or natural philosophy as it was once known.
There are other areas of philosophy that don't require us to come to grips with reality before we discuss them. Examples are ethics, aesthetics, epistemology.
|