Blind monks examining an elephant
I am constantly amazed by how easily our biology hoodwinks us into believing that human perception depicts reality. In other words, we evolved to sense ‘the world out there’ in a way that served survival. There is no reason to assume this coincides with sensing how ‘the world out there’ truly is any more than a bat’s ultrasonic hearing informs it about the true nature of ‘out there’. At best, the senses that a species evolves only convey a sliver of the big picture. The blind men and the elephant parable comes to mind.
Although, I am more amazed that I am amazed about this, or that I even realize it. Of course, that realization itself must be part of the biological hoodwink as well, which leaves me awestruck and dumbfounded (I just had to find synonyms for amazed). No wonder my mind is that of a fool – how blank! I just read this short article in Science New which discusses how physicists may be headed this way. Take a look: It’s Likely That Times Are Changing. I suppose in the long run a Taoist point of view will be the only viable point of view that remains standing. Why? Dimly visible, it cannot be named and returns to that which is without substance.
You are implicitly assuming a Realist position as part, perhaps, of a “meta-hoodwink”.
Never mind any potential mismatch in your perception of reality and what reality is really out there: What makes you think there is something out there that maps to your whole concept of reality?
Idealism seemed mostly killed off in the last century, but when I look at (decades-old) issues of things like ‘causality’ and ‘consciousness’ in quantum physics, I sometimes wonder if Kant and Bishop Berkeley might be having a chuckle.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idealism
Huh? What makes you think that I think there is something ‘out there’ that maps to my concept of reality? Just the opposite, in my view. What I see ‘out there’ maps what is ‘in here’. What I see ‘out there’ mirrors what I feel ‘in here’. From this vantage point it is easy for discernment to penetrate the four quarters and yet be capable of not knowing anything.
Sorry, I am getting altogether too metaphysical.
But what I meant to ask, provocatively, was: “Why do you think there is a reality outside of yourself?”
Everyone would say that there is something “real” which exists outside of their mind. (It seems ridiculous to argue about that, but I believe that some Idealist philosophers do.)
But our belief in some external reality seems a little paradoxical to me since our idea of “reality” and “out there” are mental constructs of ours. So it’s a kind of tautology, isn’t it? (A “meta hoodwink”). It’s the quantum paradox that has got me going on this.
I was just trying to go somewhere with this vis a vis the Tao, but I think I’m rambling.