Thinking is part of reality

[coberst]

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.

[kerowo]

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

[coberst]

[ QUOTE ]
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.

[Philo]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
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.

[/ QUOTE ]

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).

[onesandzeros]

if going to the restroom to piss is a reality, doesn't the thought of going piss precede the reality of it happening?

The lag between thought and manifestation...

"I have to piss"
"I'm going to go piss"
"I'm pissing"
"I pissed"

[tame_deuces]

Opening the door to the restroom also precedes you taking a piss, it doesn't make it an illusion.

Your mind is your body and what affects it. The mind and body are not separate entities - all that stuff are just old philosophical myths which are long since outdated. A thought is real thing - a set of incredibly complex chemical and electronical signals. And the worst part is that some people seem to think that makes it less wondrous.

[hexag1]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
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.

[/ QUOTE ]

Just because Descartes said it, doesn't make it so. Modern cognitive neuroscience has failed to find any sign of mind existing outside the brain or outside reality. Science and philosophy since Descartes has found no compelling reason to believe that minds are anything more than physical phenomena.

[MidGe]

[ QUOTE ]
Just because Descartes said it, doesn't make it so.

[/ QUOTE ]

I would hope that anyone that has done a 101 in logic would see the errors of Descartes way.

Going on Descartes knowledge, in his time, the only thing that could be said is "there is thought therefore there is thinking"!

[coberst]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Just because Descartes said it, doesn't make it so.

[/ QUOTE ]

I would hope that anyone that has done a 101 in logic would see the errors of Descartes way.

Going on Descartes knowledge, in his time, the only thing that could be said is "there is thought therefore there is thinking"!

[/ QUOTE ]

Western thought has been greatly influenced by Descartes despite his obvious fallacies.

[coberst]

I agree. I have been studying cognitive science as expressed in the book "Philosophy in the Flesh" by Lakoff and Johnson. This book details a new paradigm for cognitive science.