Essay Notes - How to Build a Universe That Doesn’t Fall Apart Two Days Later
What is reality?
- “Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn’t go away.”
Relativity of reality
- People have subjective realities, not a uniform one
- → each person lives in a subjective reality/world
- some subjective realities are closer to reality than others
- e.g. schizophrenia: subjective reality is too different and doesn’t allow for communication with other subjective realities
Merging subjective realities
Can be done by either:
- manipulation of words (→ 1984, George Orwell)
- control of perceptions
- get others to see the world as you see it
- → others will think the same way
The authentic human being
“The authentic human being is one of us who instinctively knows what he should not do, and, in addition, he will balk at doing it. He will refuse to do it, even if this brings down dread consequences to him and to those whom he loves.”