19 April 2011

Nos Estamos Haciendo Una Pélicula...Oppure Ci Stiamo Facendo Un Film

I may be having the first in a series of existential crises brought on by the realization that reality is realative. Oofa, that was a lot of words containing "real" in one sentence...and yet that seems to fit. Here is my quandry:

Is reality perception or does some objective narrative exist? My narrative may say one thing, but I could be imagining things or making up a movie in my head (to borrow the phrases in castellano and italiano) of some series of events that didn't necessarily happen for anyone else. For example, my students may be deciding that I am a certain type of person based on how I act in class...but that is only part of me. Or my friends who have never seen me teach might know me another way, but be missing that critical part of the reality of my personality. And even if I've been present for all the events and all parts of my life...is my perspective reality?

Can we ever know for certain that a series of events happened the way we think that it did? Or can we only guesstimate based on a triangulation from sharing our stories with other witnesses and confirming of denying the specifics?

I have a feeling that philosophers have struggled with this odd and confusing question for a long time, and that none of them have likely found answers that satisfy them. I need bed more than I need to think at the moment. It will have to play out in dreams. A whole separate "reality" of their own.

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