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Aaron

"Perception is reality"

Looking for other ideas about this.
Claim : "Perception is reality"
Which fallacies apply to this statement?
If encountered with this claim, what counters can one use against it?
asked on Tuesday, May 09, 2017 11:04:55 PM by Aaron

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Bo Bennett, PhD
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It is a unsubstantiated claim more than an argument. To call fallacy, we need more. Most importantly, we need to define what we mean by "reality."

Casually speaking, we can say that perception is OUR reality when we use "reality" more loosely. But clearly, what is real is independent of our perception. To refute this, we can use an reductio ad absurdum. First, we agree on a definition (this taken from the dictionary—primary definition): "the world or the state of things as they actually exist, as opposed to an idealistic or notional idea of them." Now we create the argument:

Assume perception is reality.
From this assumption, deduce that reality is one's idealistic or notional idea of the world as understood through one's senses.
Reality is actually "the world or the state of things as they actually exist, as opposed to an idealistic or notional idea of them."
This is a contradiction and the assumption and the actual definition cannot both be true.
Therefore, the initial assumption (i.e. that perception is reality) is false.

answered on Wednesday, May 10, 2017 06:33:19 AM by Bo Bennett, PhD

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