On 2/23/2003 11:57:26 PM, Cindy Burk
wrote:

>Reality is so individual that
>I believe (my opinion
>obviously) that there is no
>true reality for everyone.
>Meaning, no one single reality
>that everyone shares. We have
>have thoughts and ideas that
>are so real and so obvious to
>us that we "think" everyone
>should have the same one.
>(Myself included.)

This was an interesting post that really
gets at the heart of what we're doing in
this class. Is reality a determinate thing,
or do we all "create our own reality" as
people are fond of saying?

I think it's important to distinguish
between people having different beliefs
about reality and reality being different for
each person. It's obviously true that
different people have different beliefs
about a variety of things, and that people
have strong attachments to these beliefs,
especially those about human nature,
morality, political ideology and religion.

However, I don't understand the jump
from "people strongly believe different
things" to "different things are true for
them". Why do people (occasionally)
change their beliefs? Isn't it because
some piece of evidence or argument
convinces them that perhaps they were
wrong? If the relativistic way of viewing
things were correct, then obtaining truth
would be easy. Truth is whatever thought
comes into anyone's head, whether the
product of rigorous logical analysis and
thoughtful consideration or naive, gullible,
sloppy superstitious, careless biased
buffonery.

But isn't this contrary to our life
experiences? Surely we have all run into
false beliefs in ourselves or others. What
is a false belief that that which does not
correspond with objective reality? Now in
some circumstances it may be difficult
(even impossible) to tell who's right, but
then the proper response is skepticism
(the truth is out there, but we don't know
what it is), not relativism (everybody's right
in their own way).

Prof. Borrowdale
borrowdalej@lanecc.edu