Question

What is Real and What is Reality

1. How do you understand the word real?
2. What is real for you personally?
3. How do you understand the word reality.
4. What is reality for you?
5. What do you make of reality TV
6. Or what do you make of virtual reality
7. So far who do you agree with the most, the rationalist (mind, theory, abstraction) or the Empiricists (5 senses, experiences, testability) why?
8. Do you agree with Heraclitus that everything in the physical/tangible world changes? Why or why not?
9. How do you understand Heraclitus saying: “No person can step in the same river twice because neither the person nor the river are the same.”
10. Fire is a metaphor for Heraclitus in order to communicate the intelligent, rational logos that is the inner eternal form of the ever-changing cosmos. Although the fire is ever changing, like the physical world, there is nevertheless a structuring pattern and rhythm that ensures the continuity and intelligibility of the world. Do you agree or disagree with Heraclitus
11. Real for Parmenides is permanent, unchanging, perfect and complete. Do you agree or disagree?
12. For Parmenides, real is being is a single coherent reality. It is the being of the visible cosmos, immobilized, purified and still clearly recognizable. What do you make of this statement? Do you agree with Parmenides?
13. In otherwords, what would be Real according to Parminides?
14. Do you agree with Plato that our world of physical objects and beings is not real, nor permanent because everything is in a constant state of change?

Please provide ASAP. Thanks

Answer 1

Q1. How do you understand the word real?
I understand real as an object which is currently existing and not something imaginary.

Q2. What is real for you personally?
For me earth, currency, which I hold, the breakfast I took today, the laptop which I am working, and the person who asked this question are all real.

Q3. How do you understand the word reality.
Reality is a state of being real and is exactly opposite of imagination. A person who talks over the phone, seeing somebody walking in the park, raining, singing birds, people undergoing covid quarantine etc. are reality.

Q4. What is reality for you?
For me it is a hardcore reality that covered 19 pandemic is making most people stay at home. Having a conversation with my spouse on the family budget is a reality.

Q5. What do you make of reality TV Or what do you make of virtual reality

Reality TV is a new concept to boost viewership and instead of soaps and movies, unpopular actors playing more life like situations or themes which repeatedly market as unscripted. Virtual reality has nothing much to do with reality TV and here instead of me watching a screen in front of it, computer technology enables me to get immersed in the program and also experience three dimensional interaction.

Q6. So far who do you agree with the most, the rationalist (mind, theory, abstraction) or the Empiricists (5 senses, experiences, testability) why?

I agree mostly with Empiricists. I believe the sensory experience plays a crucial role in learning and knowledge development. Certainly experience lead to perception and helps to build up knowledge. However empiricism does not agree with innatism but I believe kids are not born with a blank mind at birth.

Q7. Do you agree with Heraclitus that everything in the physical/tangible world changes? Why or why not?

Yes, I agree with the Heraclitus observation that the nature is changed. Nature keeps on changing in a flow and the flow itself changes. Change is an absolute reality and physical/tangible world is no static.

Q8. How do you understand Heraclitus saying: “No person can step in the same river twice because neither the person nor the river are the same.”

Change is the absolute reality and everything around us undergo never ending change. For example, assume that you are on the seashore today and seeing many huts are built on the shore to help bewitching. However, at times huge tides could sweep such huts in a matter of a few seconds (think about the Tsunami disaster).

Q9. Fire is a metaphor for Heraclitus in order to communicate the intelligent, rational logos that is the inner eternal form of the ever-changing cosmos. Although the fire is ever changing, like the physical world, there is nevertheless a structuring pattern and rhythm that ensures the continuity and intelligibility of the world. Do you agree or disagree with Heraclitus.

I am not agreeing to Heraclitus. I think there is a structuring pattern and rhythm that ensures the continuity and intelligibility of the world. Human beings or technology are not able to completely manage nature and climate, but still change is ongoing and situations are not completely disastrous.

Q10. Real for Parmenides is permanent, unchanging, perfect and complete. Do you agree or disagree?
No. I am not agreeing to Parmenides philosophy that real is something which is permanent, perfect, indestructible, and unchanging.

Q11. For Parmenides, real is being is a single coherent reality. It is the being of the visible cosmos, immobilized, purified and still clearly recognizable. What do you make of this statement? Do you agree with Parmenides? In otherwords, what would be Real according to Parminides?

Paramenides preached that the past and future are mere illusions, and the Universe is static. The cosmos doctrine brings the idea of perfect and pure, absolute reality and I believe this itself as imaginary. I am not agreeing to this.

Parmenides believed in two different views of reality. One is 'the way of truth' and the other one is 'the way of opinion'. In one school Parmenides tries to put the thought of reality as one constant and never changing, timeless and perfect state. In the other school, Parmenides brings cosmos doctrine. That is, the universe is a homogeneous continuum, which is perceived by humans as different objects with the diverse appearance (Eg:- Color, Birth, Water).

Q12. Do you agree with Plato that our world of physical objects and beings is not real, nor permanent because everything is in a constant state of change?

No. I believe in real objects as well as imaginary states.
Platonic Forms are a debatable topic. Plato believed that only ideas of things exist and each form represents certain attributes (Eg: - human and humanness). Plato believed that real objects is a portrait of a form in a particular circumstance of the moment.