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Regarding reality: some consequences of two incapacities
1Department of Psychology, Cornell University Ithaca, NY, USA.
Frontiers in Psychology
|July 1, 2011
Summary
Determining if you are dreaming is empirically impossible because dream states can alter reality tests. Therefore, the most rational approach is to accept your current reality as genuine.
Area of Science:
- Philosophy of Mind
- Epistemology
- Cognitive Science
Background:
- The question of distinguishing waking reality from dreams is a classic philosophical problem.
- Empirical tests for reality verification must be statistical in nature.
- Previous attempts to establish reality-testing criteria are vulnerable to manipulation within altered states.
Purpose of the Study:
- To explore the empirical means by which one can determine if they are awake or dreaming.
- To analyze the inherent limitations of reality testing in subjective experiences.
- To propose a rational approach to the problem of distinguishing reality.
Main Methods:
- Conceptual analysis of reality testing and its statistical requirements.
- Examination of the vulnerability of baseline data in dreams or simulations.
- Critique of cryptographic defenses against reality modification in altered states.
Main Results:
- Statistical reality tests are fundamentally untrustworthy due to potential data tampering in dreams.
- The unlimited scope of reality modification in dreams invalidates standard verification methods.
- Even profound insights, like Buddhist enlightenment, may be unreliable indicators of ultimate reality.
Conclusions:
- The rational course of action is to accept experienced reality at face value.
- Awareness of this predicament is necessary for its application, which may be absent in altered cognitive states.
- Subjective enlightenment does not guarantee an accurate understanding of existence.
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