Fantasy Philosophical Discussion About Reality

A Philosophical Discussion About Reality

        I dreamt that Leucippus, Democritus and I entered an enlightening metaphysical conversation while enjoying an orange on a casual stroll through the countryside.  The entire exchange of ideas began with my querying the great thinkers that although we all agreed the day was perfect and the oranges delicious; were they actually real or sensory illusion?  Is it really a perfect day?  Is the orange really as I experience it to be?  

        As we spoke I realized these questions are anything but simple and require deep thought.  Leucippus began his answer by insisting that the experiences we have are real because the atoms upon which all things are made of are real and indivisible.  He went further by stating that Parmenides once argued that “Matter can neither be created nor destroyed.”  And that if true, something cannot come from nothing so therefore all that exists has always existed in one form or another.  Democritus agreed and added that the arrangement of the atoms is what makes things what they are, be it an orange, the sun, the earth or anything.  And that we remember familiar matter arrangements like these things.  He continued by explaining that decay, change and mutability is just the rearrangements of the atoms themselves.  Together they suggest that what we are experiencing is as real as it seems because of the arrangement of not only the atoms upon which these things are made but also the atom arrangement of our own bodies.  We feel and see things as we do because of how we are made.  With both philosophers being of the same mind exclaiming atom theory as the nature of reality, I chose to ponder their argument and reflect upon it by considering the opposing ideas of other great thinkers as well. 

         When thinking about Leucippus and Democritus answer to these questions, I challenged their concept of atoms because they had no way of proving they exist when they came up with idea.  They could not even see an atom.  Now we can and have proven that atoms exist with modern technology but if we use that in our argument then we must also use the fact that we can split atoms as well.  Nuclear fission and fusion are undoubtedly possible.  And thus the idea that atoms are indivisible is proven false.  Unless this is considered just an extreme form of mutability or decay because albeit the atom itself may be destroyed the individual components of which it was made continue to exist and will eventually end up becoming part of another atom making up some other matter.  This reinforces the idea that that matter cannot be created nor destroyed only transformed.  Common understanding and concepts held by people on what a nice day is and how an orange taste and feels support the claim that since we are all made similar than we all experience like things the same way.  

          My exploration and reflection on these questions and the argument posed by Leucippus and Democritus were enlightening but I do believe further analysis through both philosophical inquiry and scientific investigation are required.  That said, based on the information provided, time spent researching and in deep thought about these questions lead me to believe that Leucippus and Democritus were not too far off in their theory and assumptions.  Impressive when considered they pioneered the atom theory long before modern technology could prove some of their ideas correct.  Personally I found that many of the ideas and theories posed by great minds of the past tend to be similar and overlap.  Existing and not existing are similar to duality of worlds Plato referred to as Being and Becoming.  The void between matter is like the unchanging eternal world of Being.  Conversely the world we know that is physical and constantly changing is the world of Becoming.  This relates to the influential philosopher Heraclitus own view that the world is in a constant state of flux (the world of Becoming) but is governed by logos or and underlying intrinsic set of universal laws (the world of Being).  So the conclusion I have come to is that the world of Being lives alongside or within the world of Becoming.  That which exists exists within that which doesn’t.  Matter exists in the void.  One cannot exist without the other.  They are two sides of the same coin.  Atoms drawn together create form.  Which eventually deteriorates or decays but is reused or recycled into another form.  We experience these things as we do because the atom arrangement of our bodies allows us to.  Our senses, which themselves are made of matter consisting of atoms, allows us to distinguish one form of matter from another.  So the day is perfect and the oranges are delicious because they do exist and whether we experience them or not the atoms they consist of are indeed real.