Stuff - is it real?

[NoJo]

I heard that stuff is all an illusion in the mind of God, according to Berkeley. This runs counter to the evidence of our senses, which should be the final arbiter of veracity, says Hume.
Where do you stand on the issue of the reality of stuff?

 

[TxRad]

My reality check bounced a long time ago.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

"Am I a man who dreamed he was a butterfly or am I a butterfly dreaming he is a man?"

Anybody who spends time wondering such quandrys is in serious need of a real job!

 

[jomar]

I'll go with Hume. Unless Berkeley wants to step in and pay off my debt, that is.

 

[rgraham666]

Considering how much it hurts when some one punched me in the mouth I go with Hume.

 

[glynndah]

And then there's George Carlin's take on stuff...

 

[AvoidingRealWork]

I'll go with Hume. Unless Berkeley wants to step in and pay off my debt, that is.

Empiricists are so dang BORING, though.

There is an absolute realism, but there's no guarantee that your senses reflect it perfectly. Or that your senses give you any kind of complete view of reality.

I believe there are certain metaphysical strata to reality (love, consciousness, and so forth) that transcend the empirical. Hume can stick that in his pipe and smoke it.

 

[mynameisben]

"Am I a man who dreamed he was a butterfly or am I a butterfly dreaming he is a man?"

Anybody who spends time wondering such quandrys is in serious need of a real job!

Oh, don't come down so harshly on philosophy. A degree in philosophy comes in very handy as a source of solace to millions of college graduates standing in unemployment lines the world over.

 

[Handley_Page]

Oh, don't come down so harshly on philosophy. A degree in philosophy comes in very handy as a source of solace to millions of college graduates standing in unemployment lines the world over.

how very philosophical.

 

[slyc_willie]

And then there's George Carlin's take on stuff...

My personal preference.

"How come everybody else's stuff is shit, and your shit is stuff?"

Don't think there's any more cerebral an answer to the original question than that.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

I just read a book about this very subject. What we experience is an analog of reality and an operator in the sense that math is.

 

[Liar]

Are we only talking physical stuff here?

Cause even the misperception of stuff, the thought of stuff, and the word "stuff", is stuff.

 

[jomar]

Empiricists are so dang BORING, though.

There is an absolute realism, but there's no guarantee that your senses reflect it perfectly. Or that your senses give you any kind of complete view of reality.

I believe there are certain metaphysical strata to reality (love, consciousness, and so forth) that transcend the empirical. Hume can stick that in his pipe and smoke it.

That's all well and good, but try an experiment: don't pay your bills for a few months and see how your senses perceive reality.

 

[xssve]

No, only your stuff is real, everybody else's stuff is shit, according to Carlin.

 

[Verdad]

That's all well and good, but try an experiment: don't pay your bills for a few months and see how your senses perceive reality.

It's all God's fault. Your bills would disappear while you're not looking, but he keeps an eye on them.

 

[TxRad]

It's all God's fault. Your bills would disappear while you're not looking, but he keeps an eye on them.

I think you have God confused with the electric company, the phone company.....

 

[jomar]

It's all God's fault. Your bills would disappear while you're not looking, but he keeps an eye on them.

Ooh, there's that killer AV again. So alluring...I want to touch it but...

 

[TxRad]

Ooh, there's that killer AV again. So alluring...I want to touch it but...

 

[DearEmma]

I reject your reality and substitute my own. There much better.

 

[TxRad]

I saw a movie not to long ago where a guy shut his eyes and the people and world disappeared until he opened them again. That might apply except he was a crazy megalomaniac murder.

 

[Verdad]

Hey, I resent that grin! Jomar can totally rub against me anytime he pleases.

Ooh, there's that killer AV again. So alluring...I want to touch it but...

I'd propose you run your tongue over it instead, but...

 

[TxRad]

Hey, I resent that grin! Jomar can totally rub against me anytime he pleases.



I'd propose you run your tongue over it instead, but...

I thought he was talking to me for a minute there.

I was going to suggest new glasses.

 

[Verdad]

I thought he was talking to me for a minute there.

I was going to suggest new glasses.

I'd get glasses to watch that.

 

[bflagsst]

No, only your stuff is real, everybody else's stuff is shit, according to Carlin.

Only my stuff is real, there is no one else to have stuff or shit. I'm a solipsist.

 

[CharleyH]

I heard that stuff is all an illusion in the mind of God, according to Berkeley. This runs counter to the evidence of our senses, which should be the final arbiter of veracity, says Hume.
Where do you stand on the issue of the reality of stuff?

Have I told you I loved you today, SJ? xo