Define "Real"

@Kyrin
i think what youre saying is that you consider a pebble or a random grain of sand to be more real than courage or integrity

i find odd the idea that we should accout things which are basically insignificant as being REAL, while discounting as "NOT REAL" things which are absolutely fundamental to the quality of our lives

when we say "this is real" and "that is real" what we are doing is drawing out conceptual maps of reality as we encounter it or as we understand it

by idenifying things as real we say "this belongs on my map"

and maps are what we use to orient ourselves and to navigate terrain, and so a useful map is one that accurately represents the lanscape we have to traverse

but as living beings with thoughts and emotions, we arent only traversing and navigating a physical world

it might even be that the physical aspect of the world is often the least important dimension of what we are navigating

i mean, we are navigating our lives, our circumstances and motives, our ambitions, fears, and needs, ect

obviously we need a physical ground to walk on, but beyond that, its pretty irrelevant just how many pebbles we encounter or all the grains of sand we trod as we traverse the terrain of our lives

which is all the terrain a- all the reality- that we can actually connect with as individuals; there may be some purely objecive reality "out there" separate from us, but we'll never, ever encounter it
in fact we cant encounter it
we are by definition always limited to orienting and navigating from within the bubble of our own subjective experiences

so basically i dont see how a map with pebbles but no courage could be considered accurate or useful to someone who wants to orient themselves and navigate the reality of their subjective experience

OB1Shinobi wrote: @Kyrin
i think what youre saying is that you consider a pebble or a random grain of sand to be more real than courage or integrity

i find odd the idea that we should accout things which are basically insignificant as being REAL, while discounting as "NOT REAL" things which are absolutely fundamental to the quality of our lives

when we say "this is real" and "that is real" what we are doing is drawing out conceptual maps of reality as we encounter it or as we understand it

by idenifying things as real we say "this belongs on my map"

I am not saying that a rock is more real than courage for example. I don't put a weight to it in this way. Instead I'm saying that a rock exists and courage does not. I think you have missed half the mysticism of the human experience in your world view. I don't use a "map" to navigate my world. A map is a representation or symbol of some other form in reality. But how do you map love or wisdom? If a map exists it should state that I follow the path of "x" and "y" and "z" and eureka! I get to Wisdom! Do you really feel that you can just "document" wisdom in this way? I think not. Because wisdom or courage are not real they cant be quantified in this way.

A man is walking on the beach and sees another man drowning in the ocean. The man on the beach cant stand to see the man in the water struggling to stay alive and so decides to rescue the drowning man even though the man on the beach can barely swim himself and does not have any sort of flotation device. He goes out into the water to rescue the drowning man but because he can barely swim the panicked drowning man drags him down and both men drown. Was what the man on the beach did an act of courage or an act of foolishness?

The concept of Courage is an abstraction of individual actions we find a specific related significance in called courageous and so we group them together. But where do these individual actions come from and how do we decide if they are "courageous" or not? Well for each individual they come from the mind in the form of a brain state. We first have a thought about the action before we judge or perform the action. The action is evoked by the previously held thought and so "courage" is not a physical action. The physical action is a result of the thought.

So is a thought physical or otherwise "Real"? Well that's the real question and there are several different philosophical positions about this. Without getting to far down the rabbit hole here, I happen to ascribe to a position pretty close to property dualism. Basically that is the position that there is only one single physical reality but within that reality certain functions can have two sets of properties, namely physical and mental. I believe consciousness is not a single thing that can be pinpointed in the brain but is a collection of a multitude of evolved processes all functioning in concert together and as a result produce a causally emergent state we experience as consciousness.

Consciousness is a non-physical set of mental properties, such as beliefs, desires and emotions that inhere in the physical substance of our brain. These things are "true" for us as we experience them as phenomena but they don't really exist in reality. Our perceptions of brain properties are essentially spatial while our perceptions of consciousness are not. Because of this disparity it makes it impossible for our minds to ever truly understand what consciousness or "non-reality" is. It would be analogous to a mouse trying to understand quantum physics. But that does not mean we will not try anyway. And so there are differences of opinion on the subject of "reality". However for me Its like trying to fit the ocean into a pop bottle.

A man is walking on the beach and sees another man drowning in the ocean. The man on the beach cant stand to see the man in the water struggling to stay alive and so decides to rescue the drowning man even though the man on the beach can barely swim himself and does not have any sort of flotation device. He goes out into the water to rescue the drowning man but because he can barely swim the panicked drowning man drags him down and both men drown. Was what the man on the beach did an act of courage or an act of foolishness?

To know his ability, the circumstances and that he may very well die… and to attempt to save the drowning man anyways… very brave. And foolish. And if there was no threat to his own life; how brave or how much courage would he have shown? It was far more courageous because it was foolish. That is part of what makes it courageous or the brave thing to do.


The words are descriptors that have no meaning in and of themselves. But convey real ideas and acts that we experience. The reason I chose what I did is because throughout history those things could not always be proven. Could not always be measured. But over time we learned what they were, how to define them and even a way to appoint measurements to them. So they became more than ideas and far more “real.”

What is real… a continuation of thought.

What is real is simply confined to a person’s understanding of the experiences they have during their existence. An example of this is, show me the number two. The number two is very real. But no one can show me the number two because it is a conveyance of an idea. I can be shown two something’s or a scribble that represents the idea two but never the actual number.


Is a rainbow real? Can it be touched? Measured? Smelt? Aspects of it can be. I can measure the refraction of light; the distance it appears to cover; the intensity of contrast; an entire myriad of data can be gathered from the perceived phenomenon. But is the seen event real? Is there any part of the rainbow itself I can touch, weigh, smell, taste or anything physical other than seeing it or aspects of it that I can measure. Like a horse. I can touch, weigh, smell, taste, poke, ride; I mean there is no doubt that the horse is real.

Chemical responses to courage can be measured. Neuro activity in the brain can be measured. Actions can be observed. To me courage, love and integrity are just as real as rainbows.

I am not trying to convince anyone that they are real. I am merely trying to make it clear how I see it. What and why I believe the way I do. Anyone here is welcome to disagree. Call me a fool for believing as I do. But these are just as central to my belief system as honor, compassion and natural law. I believe that it is important to the soul to have faith. Believe in things that can’t be proven or measured. Just as art can’t be measured, neither can the strength that ideas convey. And they are vital to our existence as whole people and our experience of the universe. Otherwise, I feel we belittle ourselves to not much more than biological computers. And I feel like we, at least I feel I am, more than that.

Wescli Wardest wrote:

A man is walking on the beach and sees another man drowning in the ocean. The man on the beach cant stand to see the man in the water struggling to stay alive and so decides to rescue the drowning man even though the man on the beach can barely swim himself and does not have any sort of flotation device. He goes out into the water to rescue the drowning man but because he can barely swim the panicked drowning man drags him down and both men drown. Was what the man on the beach did an act of courage or an act of foolishness?

To know his ability, the circumstances and that he may very well die… and to attempt to save the drowning man anyways… very brave. And foolish. And if there was no threat to his own life; how brave or how much courage would he have shown? It was far more courageous because it was foolish. That is part of what makes it courageous or the brave thing to do.

Ahh but in this case he exceeded his ability and thus his act was one of pure foolishness. An act of courage would have been one to not ignore the drowning man (ignoring him would be cowardice) but to also have the foresight to know his limitations and better explore his options. Courage would be to acknowledge the man in the water and then proceed to find a life guard, or a flotation device of otherwise get help that could actually be effective towards saving the man. His lack of wisdom doomed them both and it resulted in nothing more than folly. This is the very definition of a subjective view of the situation and exemplifies the point that "Courage" is not a part of objective reality the way the drowning man or the ocean is. Anyone can recognize the ocean or a drowning man and they have the choice to ignore them or not. But not everyone will recognize courage because it does not exist except as a part of our subjective view.

And just because I'm saying these things are "not real" does not also make them "not true". Absolute truth exists outside reality as the ultimate form and reality is simply a reflection of this. We will never know absolute truth but we can know subjective truth as we are relegated to subjective reality and in this context how we each individually interpret reality defines how we view actions and their subsequent symbols as either true or not true. So for you, the mans action was one of courage and for me it was not one of courage. Both are subjectively true but neither are "real" because they both cant be absolutely true.

His lack of wisdom doomed them both and it resulted in nothing more than folly. This is the very definition of a subjective view of the situation and exemplifies the point that "Courage" is not a part of objective reality the way the drowning man or the ocean is. Anyone can recognize the ocean or a drowning man and they have the choice to ignore them or not. But not everyone will recognize courage because it does not exist except as a part of our subjective view.

I agree that courage or the perception of courage is not objective but rather subjective. I just don’t think that takes away from its ability to be real. Just as love and integrity is subjective and entirely up to the one experiencing them. And happiness, sadness… they are all subjective and rely on the one experiencing them to exist for that person. And we can see the effects on the person and in their lives and that is how we will experience their subjective experience.

But for me, that doesn’t make it less real. Just makes it a different experience for each person. :laugh:

Taste… we can place the exact same ingredients in the same food, or eat parts of the exact same food and come away with different interpretations of what it taste like. The overall flavor will be the same. But I may focus on the subtle hints of this or that while your focus is on the zest experienced as you first bit in to it. Objectively, it has the same ingredients and was prepared the same way for both of us. But our subjective interpretation is different.

And that is the difference, subjective is based on or influenced by personal feelings, tastes, or opinions. And objective is not influenced by personal feelings or opinions in considering and representing facts.

I guess what I am trying to say is just because something is subjective doesn’t make it less real for the individual experiencing it. I believe I understand where you’re coming from in your expression of what is real. I’m just not sure I am coming across in what I am talking about.

I will admit though, I completely fail to see how an error in judgment, or a foolish choice, negates ones courage. Or maybe I’m not completely understanding your reasoning or outcome.

I will say… I know of people that have done incredibly brave, courageous things, in combat despite how foolish we may have thought it to be. And not every person possesses the capacity to go forward under the circumstances and they are not always successful. But I will never doubt their courage or their heart. No matter if they made it or not. In that moment, they were the bravest person I had ever known of.

Wescli Wardest wrote:
I guess what I am trying to say is just because something is subjective doesn’t make it less real for the individual experiencing it. I believe I understand where you’re coming from in your expression of what is real. I’m just not sure I am coming across in what I am talking about.

I think you are getting your point across and I can see what you are saying. I agree that the experiences we undergo are felt as real to us and from our subjective point of view that is reality. When you see courage or love someone those are real experiences for us that go right along with joy and suffering and a myriad of other physiological and psychological changes. The combination makes the experience as real as the rock we just stubbed our toe on. My only point is that it is a subjective reality that we can not map out to any sort of absolute or logical truth. A rock is a rock and cannot NOT be a rock. However courage is not something that can be defined in this way because we each have a unique "experience" of it so from that standpoint the concept looses its corporeal standing.

My thought on that would be that we have common definition of each of these things. But how we experience each of them is what makes it more real for the individual. An example would be, an elephant. We can read about them, see pictures… but actually touching one; riding on it; smelling it; adds a level of “real ” that one never gets from a book or documentary.

So courage could be defined as the act of taking action despite fear. Or the ability to face fear. But actually doing it, or witnessing it adds dimension to the thing thus making it more real to the person.

So maybe there is an objective way of looking at it? Strictly text book definition, and in this manor it lacks what can be perceived as real. But once one has a personal experience with it depth and dimension is added via experience and it becomes real on a personal level.


At this point I just start rambling...
I left it because some might find it interesting.


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I actually find this all very interesting. And it helps to understand, or for me to figure out, how others view or how they think. :laugh:

I find it quite interesting as well. When you discuss topics like this it causes you to carefully examine your own beliefs and conceptions and when you have to defend them the result is either a reinforcement of them through a finer definition or evolution of them to something greater.

Its funny that you bring up "God". After my last post I was just contemplating that same thing. Is the experience of God a real experience or not? Lets call it "A spiritual experience" to generalize it better so we can include things like "The Force". If we have a spiritual experience we would think that in order for that experience to be real the thing we are experiencing would also have to be real. i.e. for a Christian that would be the Abrahamic God and for a Jedi that would be "The Force". But are those things really separate things? It would seem impractical that reality would also be infested with an infinite set of spiritual components to experience. So we can conclude that what we perceive as separate things must actually be specific manifestations of one single thing. That thing, if it exists, must have definite properties and characteristics. So why is there so much disparity when it comes to our personal interpretation of spiritual experience - for example between christian and Jedi? It would seem that if a thing exists we would be able to come to a concrete consensus about it. Since we cannot that must mean it does not exist as a thing. Instead it exists as an experience only and not a different component of reality - i.e an entity or an energy field etc.

LOL my rambling...

For me I view that sort of stuff as exceeding our capacity to interpret, and so we get a hodgepodge of familiar attributes presented by our subconscious in some attempt to hang a huge painting with a tiny frame. Then on top of that there is the exertion of conscious analysis and understanding of what the subconscious has tried to throw up. That is how I rationalize the differences with similarities, to allow further experimentation and exploration.