Article September 22, 1980 Issue

What is reality?

EVELYN M. S. DUCKETT

What is reality? Is it just the sum total of all we see and hear around us? Or is there something more we should be seeing, and some faculty that can help us to interpret sense impressions more perceptively?

Everyday experiences tell us that we can determine the real facts from the illusions. For example, parallel lines, such as telephone lines running alongside the road, have always looked as if they were going to meet at the horizon. But they never have and they never will. We know this, and we act on what we know, not on what we see. The process is much the same when we are assessing any other material evidence.

Of course, the optical illusion of telephone lines looks the same to everyone. But with more complex situations our individual reactions to what we see and hear are significant, too. In other words, we don't all interpret a given situation in the same way.

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