The Fundamental Reality essays

The Fundamental Reality essays "Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one." Throughout time, man has taken for granted, that his reality and things that have appeared true, are real. At one point man has ventured to challenge those things asking, what is reality? What is real? What is truth or something that is true? We can first try to define reality by the following: Re-al-ity n 1:The quality or fact of being real. We then ask ourselves, what is a fact? Fact n 1: A thing that has actually happened or is really true. Well then what is truth? Truth n 1: An established fact. It appears that we are contradicted with a boundless cycle of definitions, making it difficult to obtain a legitimate definition. Therefore, I will attempt to define the fundamental reality by criticizing some ideologies and supporting others. These ideologies include some of the two most disputed and upheld theories of; Platos theory of perfect forms and Aristotles theory of substance. At the base of the tremendous philosophical contribution that Plato made to Western thought, was his theory about the "Perfect Forms". To Plato's way of thinking, the "reality" that we see directly around us is merely a shadowy reflection of a "higher reality; one found well beyond our day-to- day world. This contrast between earthly reality and ultimate or ideal reality was a very important matter to Plato and to all those who have been influenced by his thought ever since. The world around us that our senses perceive directly is an ever-changing, coming-and-going array of "particular things": The tree in our front yard, our neighbor next door, the cars going by, the beds and chairs in this house, the meal we are just about to sit down to, the yellow-orange sunset this evening, the song that we heard on the radio this morning, etc. Being thus ever-changing or "impermanent, these "particulars" are not truly real. Then what is real he thought? Nothing on earth.   B...