1.2.2 Structure of Reality

Version 1.0 September 2016                                        (Previous Version)

From section 1.2.1 we can conclude only that something exists and perhaps our perceptions are linked to it in some way.   This section discusses what else we assume in order to pursue those links. 

We are not focused here on how any universal attributes arose, or were created, nor do we follow a specific creation story or a particular philosopher.  We wish to avoid making unreasonable assumptions that we can avoid, that we are not forced to make.  But we cannot understand reality unless we initially impose some order on it.  Otherwise it is amorphous, void, without form. 

Bishop Berkeley (1685 – 1753), the Anglo-Irish philosopher/priest, argued that we learn about three dimensional space, rather than it being an intrinsic characteristic of reality.  He thought we use visual cues to indirectly judge distance, because the viewer learns to associate these with tactile sensations.  Berkeley was relying on his pre-modern understanding of brain science, rather than focussing on the philosophical issue.  Indeed our brains do have an inbuilt mechanism to interpret the world in terms of space and time, but that doesn’t mean space and time are not real attributes of the external world.

As the German philosopher Immanuel Kant suggested in the 1780s, it is not possible to meaningfully conceive of an object that exists outside of time or has no spatial components or is not structured in accordance with the categories of the understanding, such as substance and causality.  We view the universe and our actions within it as a continuous sequence of events in space-time.

All people adopt the following:

●   We all interpret reality in terms of space and time, and time is ordered;

●   We all perceive relationships between things and especially identity relationships;

●   We all perceive the world in terms of objects with substance and changes through time; 

●   We all assume the universe is to some extent at least rational or orderly, and comprehensible;

●   We all assume that events are at least sometimes linked by some underlying causality. 

As Kant says, it is not possible to meaningfully conceive of an object without the above.

●   We all attribute personalities to at least some things that apparently move by themselves. 

●   We all think of ourselves and other minds as separate entities in our complex reality. 

We choose to accept this structure, without “proof�, with a degree of justifiable faith.

We suggest the following summary:

Whether there is a benefit in attributing any of this to a God is addressed in Chapter 1.3 Theology.