A Beginner's Guide to Reality

by Jim Baggott

Overview

A Beginner's Guide to Reality is an introduction to philosophy for people who don't read philosophy. Jim Baggott's sources range from Aristotle to The Matrix. He examines the major developments in Western philosophical thought on the nature of reality, at each of three levels - social, perceptual and physical. (Do money, colour, or photons exist?) The book systematically investigates these levels, peeling away the assumptions we make about those parts of reality that we take for granted.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780141042329
Publisher:	Penguin UK
Publication date:	09/01/2005
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	272
File size:	459 KB

About the Author

Jim Baggott worked as an academic and in the oil industry for 11 years before setting up his own independent management consultancy practice. He was awarded the Marlow Medal by the Royal Society of Chemistry in 1989 and a Glaxo Science Writer's prize in 1992. His previous books include Beyond Measure: Modern Physics, Philosophy and the Meaning of Quantum Theory, The Meaning of Quantum Theory: a Guide for Students of Chemistry and Physics and Perfect Symmetry: The Accidental Discovery of Buckminsterfullerene.

Table of Contents

Preface ix

Prologue: Follow the White Rabbit 1

Part 1 Social Reality, or Is Money Real?

1 Hyperreal 13

2 Living in a Material World 33

3 Me, Myself, ... We 48

Part 2 The Doors of Perception, or Are Colours Real?

4 The Prisoner 69

5 Descartes' Demon 83

6 Brains in a Vat 99

7 Are You Experienced? 117

8 Doppelgänger 133

Part 3 Physical Reality, or Are Photons Real?

9 Terra Firma? 151

10 Rise of the Danish Priesthood 171

11 For Whom the Bell Tolls 190

12 Reality in Loops and Strings 210

Epilogue: The Persistent Illusion 228

Bibliography and Filmograpby 241

Index 247