Reality and existence

Question 1

Idealism

Answer 1

Associates reality to ideas in the mind rather than to material objects.

For some people, it is thoughts and feeling which are the most real because they are immediately inside ourselves, and we can’t doubt their existence – the way you personally experience entities

Question 2

Materialism

Answer 2

Reality is made up of physical components.

For some people, physical entities are the most real- based on atoms.

Question 3

Dualism

Answer 3

Mind and body (physical) are two separate substances.
For some people, reality falls somewhere between the two. Physical entities are the start of reality, however everyone’s experience of these physical entities is different and personal. So what is actually real about these physical entities if they are different for everyone?

Question 4

Brain in a vat

Answer 4

On the brain-in-a-vat hypothesis, a given person is a brain living in a vat of nutrients. The nerve endings of the brain are connected to a supercomputer, whose program sends electrical impulses that stimulate the brain in the same way that actual brains are stimulated when perceiving external objects. If you are a brain in a vat, suppose, your conscious experiences are and have been indistinguishable from the experience you might have living in a physical body