Julian Baggini - What is Ultimate Reality?

What is the deepest nature of things? Our world is complex, filled with so much stuff. But down below, what's most fundamental, what is ultimate reality? Is there anything nonphysical? Anything spiritual? Or only the physical world? Many feel certain of their belief, on each side of controversial question.



Julian Baggini is the author of several books about philosophy written for a general audience. He was awarded his PhD in 1996 from University College and contributes to a variety of newspapers, magazines and BBC radio.


Closer to Truth presents the world’s greatest thinkers exploring humanity’s deepest questions. Discover fundamental issues of existence. Engage new and diverse ways of thinking. Appreciate intense debates. Share your own opinions. Seek your own answers.

[bryancook]

Great back and forth in this discussion! Really enjoyed it.

[WDIOMUSG]

So many people think that they are open minded, but don’t realize that they are not. That’s why I love Closer to truth and how he explores these topics. I want to believe that there is something like god, nature, or some kind of in everything presents, like gravity, or the forces, or even the theorized fields for particles etc. What ever you want to call it, but I don’t think it is anything like the good books, say it is. But there is a side of me that thinks that there could be nothing and when we are gone, that’s it and it won’t matter cause your nothing again. No thoughts, pain, or anguish, or all the feel good feelings to. Being human is hard and it gets harder as I get older. So many people let other people think for them instead of trying to get Closer To Truth.

[davetubervid]

The general tenor of the comments on here is excellent. I learned as much from them as from the talk itself. Obviously, Closer to Truth attracts some of the best brains around. (The others are probably all on Twitter).

[raphpopozz]

The content does not correspond to the title ; it's about the meaning of life, which is a totally different matter than the ultimate reality

[mikedziuba]

It's not possible to have meaning without any consciousness and without any mind. Because it's the mind that makes sense of the world and creates meaning out of it.

So, looking for meaning makes sense only if you look for it in some consciousness and mind, either somebody else's or your own. And of course, you can also create meaning in your own mind, either on your own or together with other people. Because meaning is something your mind naturally creates. It's not something you necessarily need to find. And you can create it consciously and deliberately, just like you can consciously and deliberately look for it.

A lot of people find meaning in the feeling of love. And one of the reasons for this is because strong feelings and emotions narrow your time horizon and focus your attention and your mind on the present. So, you lose your awareness of the fact that you personally will die in the future, and of course you also lose your awareness of more distant events in the future.

Meaning is a subjective experience of the mind. And if you understand how the mind works, then you can create meaning that makes all the sense now in the present, and you aren't even aware of distant future. So, the distant future isn't affecting your experience of meaning at all in such a situation. And this is what happens when people feel strong love.

That's why love might be the ultimate meaning of life in the subjective sense. And of course all personal experience is subjective, including that of meaning and love.

[humlakullen]

A wise man once said: "There are different levels of truth. The truth you'll find, is proportional to your level of understanding".
A: The "meaning of life, is to give life meaning".
B: Ultimate reality is out of our reach, because we are limited by our five senses.

[clownworld-honk]

In the words of Jeff Lebowski "Well, like, that's just your opinion, man".

[ronhudson]

We are of the universe. We are the universe experiencing itself. It and we are one and the same. For it to see itself, if must have eyes. For it to contemplate itself, it must have mind. For it to contemplate the future, it must have us.

[bluelotus]

Some of the basic questions a human being should ask are: Where do I come from? Where am I going? What am I doing here? Why must I suffer even if I don't want to?

[dreyestud]

Baggini is right, Kuhn has to be honest with himself and realize someday he will die. And Kuhn SHOULD realize that before he dies he should not have the feeling his life was wasted.

[martinaee]

For me the ultimate reality is facing the fact that you will be absorbed back into "all of reality" and yet you will never grasp its full nature.

The ultimate reality is that we ARE reality trying to understand itself.

[hkicgh]

How can a machine that has a Creator (Whatever the creator is) tell itself the meaning of its existence?

[mosesexodus]

*_“All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.”_* Arthur Schopenhauer

[jeancorriveau]

Ultimate reality? It's whatever unconditional that is common to all human beings. Will to live. Eating, etc. Other than those, our brain creates its own reality.

[glennbalck]

Kuhn's Closer to Truth has purpose

[nareshn]

I started liking your persistency... in trying to extract information from just about anywhere...often from nothing...this can continue forever...

[michaelshortland]

Life and my life have no meaning, i have no purpose. But i am a pattern that continues through time, while slowly changing and that is interesting.

[paulrharmer]

You don’t exist but something IS here. Fall in love with that existence but don’t attach.

[arkeusalexander]

Only a creator can give an objective meaning to it's creation.
If there is no creator we can try to find meaning but it's all subjective.

[mosesexodus]

3:30 "There is something real. There's life. There's experience. There's relationship. There's beauty. There's love..." Everything that the scientist just described as being "real" are non-material / immaterial entities. Unfortunately, Materialists have adopted the subjective belief that non-material / immaterial entities do not exist. Is that belief rational and reasonable when attempting to describe the totality of reality?