Are Mental Images Real? :: Reality Philosophy Philosophical Essays

Are Mental Images Real?This essay was my first jabbing at defining and discussing realism for my freshman seminar, What is Reality?. Using a questionable topic of reality (in this case -- are mental images real?), we were to attempt a working definition and method for determing that which is real. Pretty lousy, Im not gonna lie, but an interesting assignment. In the middle of the night, a boy awakes from the most horrifying chase setting hes ever witnessed, terrified in a cold sweat. His heart is pounding, hes lost his breath. And yet he wakes to the comfortable knowledge that it was all just a dream. The mind is a strange entity, in that it is essentially our guide to that which we experience - it perceives, processes, interprets, analyzes, and utterly convinces. We respond physiologically to our minds wills, be it with delegate heart rates, elation, or a deep-rooted sense of confusion in the inability to distinguish between what our mind says and what we know to be true. Herei n we depict the quandary of existence as human beings in society are the images and experiences of our mind truly real? To a schizophrenic, a hallucination in which he is attacked by a big black dog is as real to him as a true assault by a New York mugger. Where, then, is the furrow drawn between a pure mental image and reality, and what does this say about the reputation of reality? Enlightened philosopher Rene Descartes said, I think, therefore I am, claiming the reality and validity of his existence based on the inner workings of his mind. The mental images and experiences he had were, to him, the fundamental proof that, as an entity, he was truly functional and definite. notwithstanding how many of us have, at one point or another, asked ourselves, Is this really happening? and, despite the knowledge that we must be conscious to be speculative thusly, still couldnt verify or discredit the reality of the situation? To quote a classmate in a discussion about the nature of ex istence, All that individual existentialism stuff sounds pretty funky, but youve got to believe in it for it to work. Indeed, the idea that reality is created or destroyed by ones take willingness to exist is a terrifying and thought-provoking concept, riddled with metaphysical questions of procedure and mechanics of life. Do peoples minds allow them to know of their own horrifying and grotesque deaths, or is there perhaps an I-am-dying-peacefully-in-my-sleep hormone released when the body becomes aware of its infinite peril?