The philosophical study of the nature of Reality

Reality Objective and independent of…. Perceptions (Individual and relative) Explanations (Cultural and Scientific)

Changing Explanations of Reality Ancient/Prehistoric Ancient/Prehistoric Medieval/Western Religious Medieval/Western Religious Mechanistic Mechanistic Evolutionary Paradigm Evolutionary Paradigm Einstein’s Relativity Einstein’s Relativity Unification Theories - string theory Unification Theories - string theory

Changing World (Reality) Views (Western Cultural Tradition) Ancient:Spirits Mythological Early religious Anthropologists speculate that it was Homo Sapiens’ curiosity and imagination that enabled them to survive the last Ice Age when the competitive hominid Neanderthal Man failed. Ancient cultures saw the world as full of spirits. There was a deep belief in the spirit or ‘life force’ of living creatures, (particularly those animals that were prey) and humans themselves. This spirit survived death. Man was firmly at the centre of the Universe. Mythologies became more complex and more anthromorphistic. Religions developed out of, and were a form of a mythological understanding of the world (reality).

Religious/Medieval From the early days of Christian domination of Europe politically (around 300 AD to the late 1400’s.) Heirarchical A Heirarchical view of reality The Various Levels of HELL The Flat Earth The Sky - Sun, Moon Stars and Planets Heaven and the realm of angels

In this view of reality, there were supernatural beings who would visit the flat Earth from the realms above and below. Evil was associated with demons/devils/Satan Good was associated with angels, the Holy Spirit, Christ the Son and God the Father (Holy Trinity). Each human had a spirit (soul) that survived death. The fate of the soul after death depended on the works or Faith of the individual. Religious institutions dictated the sort of behaviours that would guarantee afterlife passage to Heaven or Hell. Sacred scripture was the ultimate say in the true and literal nature of reality as it was considered to be the Word of God (Divinely inspired). This is still believed today. Man is firmly at the centre of the Universe.

MECHANISTIC In 1543 Nicholas Copernicus proposes that the Sun does not revolve around the Earth as is commonly believed, but rather the Earth orbits the Sun. This is in direct opposition to the doctrine of the Church which states (based on its interpretation of the Old Testament) that the Earth and Man are at the centre of God’s creation. Science and the scientific method takes off and leads to a view of the world that is Mechanistic. Reality is like a giant clock. Religious doctrine is not dismissed by all, simply reinterpreted in the light of continuous scientific discoveries. Physical ‘laws’ are discovered and utilised in new technologies. This becomes the dominant view of reality for at least 200 years (and still is for many people).

The Evolutionary Paradigm A paradigm is a way of looking at something, an intellectual framework for viewing reality. In the mid 1800’s, two scientists, Darwin and Wallace independently came up with the idea that all living things were the result of a long process of Natural Selection. Species thrived and died continuously based on their natural abilities to survive in a given environment. Although Darwin firmly believed in a Creator God, he opened the door for a scientific explanation for the vast number of living species currently living on Earth, as well as the even vaster number of extinct species found in fossil records. This theory shook (and still does) the world with its metaphysical implications. Man was no longer at the centre of God’s creation, simply a very sophisticated product of evolutionary forces. It also cast doubt on the literal truth of the Biblical creation story. Although scientists had not calculated the age of the Earth (this would come with the discovery of radioactivity), the 6000 year history and 7 day creation of the Earth were in question.

The Total Perspective Vortex In the book series Hitchhikers Guide tto the Galaxy, one of the main characters steals an important spaceship and is punished by being placed in a device that puts his own life in perspective in terms of the size and history of the universe. It is meant to send anyone completely mad, but his ego is so large that he emerges in tact. As the 20th Century proceeded, science was able to measure the size and age of the Universe increasingly more accurately. As light from distant stars and galaxies was measured, scientists realised that the universe was BILLIONS of years old and BILLIONS OF LIGHT YEARS BIG. Further, the earth was a small planet in an insignificant solar system in a remote part of one galaxy. Man was definitely NOT at the centre of the universe. This realisation has had profound metaphysical and philosophical consequences.

Relativity and Quantum Mechanics In the early parts of the 20th Century, Albert Einstein challenged the mechanistic view of reality. He explained how Gravity and light worked with both his Special and General Theories of Relativities. No longer could the universe be seen in the same way. His theories were crucial for understanding Reality at a cosmological level. Everything was relative to everything else - nothing was fixed. Quantum Mechanics was developed in the 1920’s and 30’s and was a new way of understanding Reality at an atomic level. Ironically, Einstein disliked Quantum theory, and never really accepted it. Quantum theory is a totally bizarre way of seeing the world, because the behavior of subatomic particles is uncertain and probabilistic. The problem in understanding Quantum theory is that the world we live in does not operate like that. So how is it that the most fundamental particles can act randomly, and yet the things that they make up do not? Or do they?? Quantum theory is a very powerful and highly accurate (according to modern physicists) way of describing atomic reality, but it can not deal with Gravity and Einstein’s universe.

Unification and String Theory Physics is constantly trying to Unify Einstein’s theories with that of Quantum Physics, in order to have a ‘simple’ yet comprehensive way of describing Reality. One of the most interesting modern physical theories on the nature of Reality is String Theory. In a nutshell, String theory proposes that all Reality is made up of pulsating ‘strings’ of energy. These strings are what constitute subatomic particles, which in turn constitute atoms, which in turn constitute molecules etc to create ‘things’. Similarly, forces and energies are also (according to the theory) made up of these strings in their various permutations. String theory unites the world of Einstein with the world of Quantum Mechanics, but is it ‘true’? One big problem is that no experiment (at least no experiment thought of yet) can verify it, the theory may well remain simply that - an elegant and mathematical way of viewing the world with no way of being proved/disproved. Time will tell.