What can We Know about Reality?

The Nature of Reality:
Quasi-Realism
Representational Realism
Existence and Natures
Knowledge of Reality
The Language of Reality

We have spent the Nature of Reality series developing the idea that we do not see reality as it is, but as our brains create from the information we receive through our senses. In fact, it is impossible for us to perceive reality as it really is, because the very act of perception is at least one step removed from reality. This leads to mistakes. We perceive things that are not there, and we are blind to things that are. Furthermore, the only way we have to determine whether something is real is to compare it with the rest of reality as we know it, all of which is contained within our heads. Just like every word in a dictionary is defined by other words in the dictionary, so we judge the reality of every concept and perception in our brain by other concepts and perceptions in our brain. So the question arises: are we stuck? Is there any way we can know anything about true Reality, or are we forever doomed to subjectivity and relativism?

There is one thing we can know about true reality. That is because perception itself is a part of reality. You can know with absolute certainty that you are conscious, and that your consciousness has a variety of qualia. You are looking at light gray lines on a dark gray background. As you read these words, you are sounding them out in your head, in a way that is kind of like hearing them, but not quite. It may be impossible to directly know the true nature of the computer screen, or even if the computer screen exists, but you do know with absolute certainty that you are experiencing perceptions as if there is a computer screen in front of you.

Abstract Painting 599 by Gerhard Richter. You may not know what it is supposed to represent, but you know that you are perceiving colors and textures.

But our direct perceptions are only an infinitesimally small part of reality. In order to know anything about the rest of it, we need to be content with the representations of it we create in our minds. The question then becomes, what makes some representations of reality better than others? What does it mean for a representation to be true?

The place to start is the fact that Reality obeys the law of non-contradiction. Something that is real cannot be both true and false at the same time. See the previous entry in the series, Existence and Natures. Now you may wonder if that is true. After all, if we both look at a ball, and it looks blue to me, but it looks green to you, isn't that a contradiction? No, because my perception takes place in my brain, and your perception takes place in your brain. Neither of our perceptions is the ball. The ball is itself. The ball reflects the wavelengths of light that it does, which just happens to look different to you than it does to me because our cognitions work a little differently.

Because Reality obeys the law of non-contradiction, we can apply logic to the information brought to us by our senses. It is true that the models of reality we create are not themselves reality, they are only models. But if a model accounts for the information we get from our senses, and it does not contradict itself in any way, that is enough to say the model is true. And if the model makes predictions for new information you would get through your senses in the right circumstances, and you create an experiment to test those predictions, that increases the certainty that the model is true. You may find this familiar; after all, it is the scientific method as it is taught in grade school.

Today we learned that even though it is impossible to know reality directly except for the small fraction of reality that is your own perception, that doesn't mean reality is forever out of our reach. Reality is governed by logic, and we can know logic. So if we have models of reality in our minds, and the logic that describes the models is the same logic that describes reality, then we say that we know that part of reality. If a concept or belief has the same logical structure as the real thing it describes, that is what it means to be true.

The Fool's Gift – The Well of Images Part 4

Read “The Fool’s Gift” at WritersCafe.org.

The saga of Samuel Locke and Hope Emmerich and their adventures in the Unconscious Realms continues! Hope and Samuel have followed the symbol of the torch on its path through the Realms, and have arrived at the doorstep of the Sage. Before they are granted an audience with the mysterious archetype, they must pass through a gauntlet of tests. However, in the shadows behind the scenes, the deck may have been stacked against them.

“The Fool’s Gift” is part 4 of the story arc, The Mentor, the Hero, and the Trickster of the short story series, The Well of Images. You can find the previous installments at WritersCafe, or by following the links in the “finished stories” tab at the top of this blog.

As October started and NaNoWriMo approached, I held the first draft of “The Fool’s Gift” in my hands, knowing that if I did not polish it to beta stage by November, it would be delayed by another month. Having just published a blog post about the value of hard work, I knew there was no choice but to put all of my effort into getting the second draft and proofreading run done in just one month. It was a looming challenge, and I did not know if I could do it, one month later it was finished, and now two and a half weeks after that, it is up. It reminds me of some advice I recently heard from the mathematician Eric Weinstein, who I consider a real life sage, “we need more people to over-promise and over-deliver.” Telling myself that I would finish the revision draft of “The Fool’s Gift” in a single month was an over-promise, and getting it done was over-delivering.

The Mentor, the Hero, and the Trickster:
1. Pandora’s Gate
2. Where Secrets Lie
3. Limits of the World
4. The Fool’s Gift
5. Loki’s Game

If you like my stories, or want to help out a fledgling novelist, you can support me on Patreon. Even a gesture of $1 per month would be a great encouragement.

NaNoWriMo 2018 – Back to My Roots

It is November again, when the trees lose their leaves, the jackets come on, and the writing bug bites. I think by now I’ve conditioned myself Pavlovian-style to put my fingers to the keyboard when the weather starts cooling off. And once again, I am sprinting the marathon of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), cranking out a draft of a book in 30 days. This time, I am going the whole ten yards, shooting for the standardized goal of 50,000 words, with no less than 1,667 per day. I wrote 1,935 yesterday, so I’m going strong.

Last year, my goal was only 1,000 words per day, and I had a really rough time. But I have improved since then, practicing both on this blog and with The Well of Images, and I have a game plan.

First, the book I have chosen is sure to keep me going at it day after day. I have mentioned Moebius a few times on this blog, the story I have been building for over ten years, and with which I hope to make a name for myself when I finally publish it. But I started writing a version of Moebius a long time ago, back when I was about 13. Since then, it has grown into something completely different, the only similarities being a few names and that it takes place in space. This NaNoWriMo, I am going back to the original idea, and writing a full draft of MoebiusQuest, where the two protagonists, Zoink and Oliver, go on a quest to find the seven elemental medallions and stop the evil Disassembler. It will be fun, whimsical, and positively drenched in nostalgia.

The second thing I am doing is joining a chat group of other NaNo writers. I went onto the NaNo forums early this year and hit it off with someone who invited me to their Discord server, which now has ten or fifteen members, all hyped to write and ready to keep each other going.

Thirdly, I have gotten into the writing habit, having cranked really hard on The Well of Images part 4, so that it would be beta ready before November. NaNo is still a step up from that, but it is half a step less than it would have been. Part 4 is in beta stage right now, and will be released online next week, so get hyped for that.

Finally, I have a caffeine plan. Caffeine’s potency depends on how much caffeine is normal for your system. Have two cups of coffee each day, and you need three to get a buzz. But if you’ve been off it for a month, a single cup of tea is all you need. For the past few years, I have been largely caffeine-free, making those rare occasions when I indulge at a restaurant or coffee shop quite powerful. I still drink decaf in the mornings out of habit, and that is the target of my plan. Starting yesterday, I changed one of my two tablespoons of grounds from decaf to half-caf. A week from now, I’ll change the other to half-caf as well. In two week, I’ll change one to full-caf, and for the final week, I will use two scoops of regular caffeine-loaded coffee grounds. Hopefully this gradual ramping up of caffeine intake will keep me burning brightly through the whole month.

I’m ready. It’s time. My first real NaNoWriMo challenge has begun. It’s time to prove to my future self that I have what it takes, that I am the real deal now. Wish me diligence, wisdom, and luck.