– Northern Dragon © 2019. All rights reserved.

What is reality?

That question has been the subject of countless hours of thought and philosophical or religious debate. What is it…?

Is it a world comprised of physical matter which we can touch and sense and influence – and which exists due to natural laws we are only now beginning to comprehend?

Or is it an illusion shaped by mystical forces or gods beyond our ken?

Or maybe it is merely a figment of imagination? A dream, perchance, shaped by our minds?

It was in the search for this truth, for the fundamental knowledge of existence, that the philosopher finally declaimed, “Cogito, ergo sum” – I think, therefore I am. And with those words laid the foundation for Western philosophy.

Well, actually what Descartes laid out was the argument, “I doubt, and because I doubt, I must exist.” And so doubt – the fundamental questioning of knowledge and beliefs – became the foundation on which literally all of Western culture and science was built.

“I doubt…”

What a magnificent concept!

Too bad we have stopped doing that.

• Do you remember the future?
• The Shape of Reality

Categories: Reflection

Tags: culture, Descartes, doubt, philosophy, question, reality, science, truth, western

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