The Nature Of Reality

One of my favourites in the Philosophy world is Schopenhauer.  He wrote some interesting, though some say pessimistic works which I believe have stood the test of time.   Schopenhauer thought we could know the nature of reality, the will, because we are part of it.

here is a little piece I wrote for a competition run by the rather excellent Philosophy magazine ‘Philosophy Now’   A relatively new magazine, which has some fascinating articles, and to my surprise was not dry or unimaginative at all.  The competition asked for articles on the nature of reality, so suitably challenged I sent off a little piece.   My interest in Philosophy has endured for quite a while now, but unfortunately there is not a lot of money to be made from it!

A nice introduction to Schopenhauers writing can be found in this Penguin Classic:

What Is The Nature Of Reality?

How does reality appear to us? What are the circumstances that could cause ones reality to be different from another? Our perception of reality is a generation of sensations caused by our minds, and the sense that they make of the inputs to the brain, be they aural, visual, by physical stimulus, taste or smell. These sensations, particularly the visual one will give us a sense of our surroundings, and their dimensions. It would be very easy to distort this perception, and this can easily be done through the ingestion of mind altering drugs, or through the loss of one of the senses. Visually impaired people, who have never seen, can have their own sense of reality, which may be vastly different to a sighted person. They may have an internal visualization of a bodily form for example, which if drawn or created could be completely altered from what is perceived to be normal.

Questions have been raised which hypothesize that one persons sense of reality may be different to the next persons. However, as we are made of essentially the same genetic structure and receive essentially the same inputs, this seems unlikely.

How different would an insect or animals perception of reality be compared to ours? A fly for example, will have a distorted (to us) pictorial representation of its visual stimuli, but this is caused by evolution and the necessity for the fly to be aware of more of its surroundings, and potential threats.

The other sense of reality is the sense caused by the aggregation of all that makes up our world. Could we be in a ‘Matrix’ type world, where our stimuli are provided to us by an outside agency? How would we know this? In a dream state, situations which seem absurd when awake often occur. These dream states provide our minds with an outlet which cannot be accessed when our conscious mind is in control. Therefore, we seem to have a duality of existence, one conscious and the other subconscious. The subconscious state can seem as real as the waking state to a person who is dreaming or having a nightmare for example. How often is it that you wake, and then go over your dream to realize that some of the things you were doing are impossible. Or are they?

Alternate realities can now be induced by wearing computerized headsets, which can place a person inside a virtual reality setting. As graphics become more sophisticated, can this visualization be separated from actual reality?

Here is a link to the magazine, a nice read and some top quality information for the budding Philosopher!  I think most of the content is hidden behind a subscription barrier now, but have a look if you feel inclined.

Philosophy Now

Charles Bukowski – Love Him Or Hate Him

I am a long time fan of Buk, and when I want to see someone who has had it harder than I, I turn to his poetry or prose. Buk was quite prolific, and was at his typewriter more often than not. If you have read anything about Bukowski, you would understand that his childhood was less than perfect, and his father features quite often in his writing. I imagine that taking a beating from his father more often than not caused a lot of Buks problems, but nonetheless he was a compex character.

His writing is very evocative, and you get a sense of there being more than one personality in Buk. His sensitive, soulful side is a joy to behold, and when he turns it on there is nothing to compare in modern day prose. To his credit, he tapped away even when the muse escaped him, which was quite often. You will find quite a few tired clauses scattered through his work, but that does not detract from the rest of his brilliance:

Wind The Clock

It’s just a slow day moving into a slow night.
it doesn’t matter what you do
everything just stays the same.
the cats sleep it off, the dogs don’t bark,
it’s just a slow day moving into a slow night.
there’s nothing even dying,
it’s just more waiting through a slow day moving
into a slow night.
you don’t even hear the water running,
the walls just stand there
and the doors don’t open.
it’s just a slow day moving into a slow night.
the rain has stopped,
you can’t hear a siren anywhere,
your wristwatch has a dead battery,
the cigarette lighter is out of fluid,
it’s just a slow day moving into a slow night,
it’s just more waiting through a slow day moving
into a slow night
like tomorrow’s never going to come
and when it does
it’ll be the same damn thing.

Buk is very clever in some of his constructions, and manages to very easily evoke that 3am feeling, which most of you with insomnia will recognize very well.

This particular poem was featured in the film ‘Factotum‘ with Matt Dillon and Lili Taylor, and the poem featured as a song in the film called ‘Slow Day’

Many of Buks poetry books seem to repeat, but that is generally thematic. His personality weaves back and forth from sensitive to bar brawling lunatic, and his propensity for getting himself into the worst kind of situations seemed to feed off into his writing very well.

Here are my picks for his best work:

‘What Matters Most Is How Well You Walk Through The Fire‘ 1999 (Later on in his writing career, but very smart and switched on)

‘Love Is A Dog From Hell‘ 1977 (All class)

‘The Roominghouse Madrigals: Early Selected Poems‘ 1988 (Some poems are rough, but overall a shining diamond!)

Buk is a very amiable companion late at night, and I have found his work to be of great comfort on some occasions. However he lived, and whatever he did to get by, I have no complaints. I salute his ability to carry on, under what must have been some very trying conditions. Reading about some of his days without food are particularly heartbreaking, but he did it his way, and took no prisoners.

Here’s to you Buk!