Defining a Reality

India
December 29, 2010 11:22pm CST
"Reality", like most of the philosophical hot-words (God, Truth, Purpose etc) seriously lack a definition, or at least, an agreement of terms, which might lead people to return to negligible generalities and hackneyed expressions, crisp and clear before, but sadly crude today. I think encapsulating the word, "Reality" in a personal definition would at least address the labyrinthine nature of certain issues or puffed-up non-issues at hand ("Does God and Universe and Richard Dawkins have a purpose etc"). Moreover, defining the term--which, obviously is the foundation of the further why's and what's how's--might shed further light on the related issues. I understand that a comprehension of "Reality" must also go hand in hand with a comprehension of the comprehension of "Reality", or perception, but that topic was dealt beautifully, quite recently. So, to start: What do you mean by "Reality"? Needless to say, there are a hundred ambient realities extant in a room of hundred people (I'm rudely toppling the vanity of terms like "subjective reality" and "objective reality" from our table). To be sure, a general assent, a tetanus-shot of potent "average reality" exists, independent of topographical or chronological considerations ("I live, I think I live, I die, I think I die" etc). For brevity, we shall take these axioms (for they are axioms, after all) for granted. A few non-controversial questions which could be profitably discussed here are: Is Reality an appendage of Time? Does Reality encompass a cause and its effect, as well? Is Reality independent of the evolutionary nature of perception? Is Reality what is termed as a God, or Deity, or Nature, or Universe? What defines or delineates Reality? Does Reality have a "moral, ethical or symbolical" coloration? How Real should Reality be to be called Reality? Or even: Is Reality another epistemological and/or linguistic trick?
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