As an undergraduate I used to write down “thoughts”. The quality of English I used wasn’t always the most eloquent, but it was the thought that counted back then. So here is a simple one from 1985 [with minor editing]:
Just five minutes ago walking back from the bus-stop, the question struck me. “What is reality?” Is this world; the world that we see and never question, reality?
Is there in fact any universally accepted meaning of the word, or does everyone have their own unique idea [perception] of reality.? It must be remembered that the ‘meaning’ mentioned, is the concept rather than the definition of the word, and as such it can be directly compared [likened] to the recognition [perception] of different colours.
Nobody would deny that the colour of the ink that I am using is blue [it was written in blue ink]. That is because throughout their lives, whenever they have experienced the sensation of seeing this colour, it has been called blue, but what is to say that they actually see [perceive] the same colour. A friend of mine might actually see what I would describe [perceive] as orange [or happy?] but call it blue, simply because he knows that colour is blue. Now getting back to the concept of reality –
The world that we live in is the ‘blue’ of the above example and each individual’s view of this Reality is the colour that they ‘actually’ see [perceive], but they still think that their concept of reality, (their personal ‘colour’) is the same as everyone else’s. I am not saying that there is is not one absolute reality, but simply that everyone has a slightly different concept of what absolute reality actually is. [10/10/1985]
