The concept of reality and appearances had been significant to me in a very superficial level. I had never given much thought to it until my first ever philosophy class. That was when I started to question the very meaning of the word ‘reality’. It occurred to me then how much I had taken this concept for granted. It tormented me to find that all that I had believed to be real wasn’t actually real! What was reality then? Was there anything that was real? Or, was it just us who took things to be real simply to avoid complicating matters? Was reality only that which was perceived by our five senses? Were the things that existed beyond our capacity to perceive them real?
Ever since I was a child, I have been fascinated by dreams. So much so, that when I was a kid and I’d wake up after a good 12 hour long sleep, I’d find it extremely difficult to differentiate between the ‘real’ world and the one I dreamt about… I saw the same people in my dreams that existed in ‘reality’. Hasn’t anyone else wondered that the world that we step into when we sleep might be the real world and the one that we wake up might actually be a dream! In the same strain of thought, hasn’t anyone else been petrified to think that the person that we love the most in the world might actually be a figment of your imagination! What is it then that defines the real world and differentiates it from a dream or an imaginary world?
We as human beings misconstrue reality with appearances mainly because our bodies are fashioned to ignore this differentiation. The lenses in our eyes double the size of everything that we see. Hence, that which appears to be 5 feet tall is actually in reality only 2 ½ feet tall! Thus, we take this appearance to be real. The only way that we can know anything about the world around us is through our senses. But, in such cases our senses do not help in unearthing this reality either because our senses other than that of sight can’t tell us anything about the dimensions of the object that we touch, smell, taste or hear.
The idea of reality is also extremely subjective. What is real to me may not be real to someone who’s blind. For example, if I see a shirt that appears to be pink in colour, the same shirt may not be pink to a blind person. He can only believe it to be pink when I tell him. In the same manner, reality seems to be different for children and adults.
Other ideas such as knowledge, belief and faith are also linked to the concept of reality and they are also disputed when the very notion of reality is questioned. For example, in the 18th century, during the Victorian era in England, many scientific discoveries were made which shook the very foundation of society. The people had till then believed that they were the descendants of Adam and Eve. But, Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution refuted this belief. The faith of the people was questioned. Reality then, accompanied with knowledge stood in opposition to faith and belief. But, the question is that if something is proved scientifically, then does that thing become reality?
Appearances also play an important role in our perceiving colours. For instance, a yellow bag appears green if I place a green screen in front of the source of light. Does that bag actually become green then? If a colour blind man sees the bag, will the reality change then? What is the real colour of the bag then? Even the brightness of the bag is dependant on the point of view it is seen from. The bag will look bright from its front if the source of light is placed at its front. But when the source of light is shifted to the back, then the brightness increases at the back and reduces in the front. Thus, is the bag bright at all?
Thus, it emerges that reality as it has seemed to me till date was actually just an appearance. It is disconcerting to find that reality then is accessible only through something else - a sort of a middleman – and if I don’t get access to that middleman, then reality is lost! Reality is a concept that I merely thought about earlier, but now it is a concept that I struggle to comprehend. We live our lives, day after day, in what we call the real world. But, what if, as in The Matrix, reality is fiction? The truth can be a frightening thing, especially when the nature of the truth is unknown. When it comes to our perception of everyday activities, it seems to be so real. The truth is that we don’t know what’s out there or how things will turn out nor do we know how they began.
