On Truth and Falsity

                             The Usefulness of Reality

The skeptics claim that they suspend judgment as to whether or not any appearance is real or not. But they also propound arguments that no sense objects or thought objects can be real. pb. OP. They seem to believe that both objective appearances and subjective appearances can be but mere illusions. But if that were true, then only nothingness could be real. But nothingness would have no power within it to produce illusions. This fact can only mean that consciousness has to be real even if it only produces illusions. But the skeptics argue that even consciousness cannot be real. Evidently, they believe that nothingness can produce illusions. But if nothingness happens to be all that can really exist, or non-exist, then mind and all of its illusions would be impossible. The skeptics admit that humans have appearances, but something about this connection has to be real. But as Heidegger informs us, every person is a "being in the world." As such, humans can use their thought objects and their sense objects to create useful systems that benefit themselves and others. This means that humans possess the power within themselves to abolish all illusions and cause themselves, and the world they are in, to become real.

Humans also possess the useful idea of nothing which humans can use in its formulation of useful systems. Heidegger expressed the idea of nothing as the constant thought of the imminence of death which acted as as continuous limitation on all of the creative abilities and possibilities that humans can have. This fact can only mean that because humans possess a real idea of nothing, then all that happens to be more than nothing; that is, something, can only be a consciousness of reality. In other words, since humans can be conscious of the useful idea of nothing that indirectly indicates unreality, and humans can also be conscious of their sense objects and thought objects as being useful in creative ways, then humans must be conscious of reality.

A person holds up a hammer to a skeptic and asks him if it is real or not. The skeptic answers that according to his form of logic the hammer cannot be real. The person then asks the skeptic if the hammer is but an illusion. The skeptic replies that the hammer is just an appearance which could be an illusion. The person answers the skeptic that he just admitted that there is a possibility that the hammer could be real. The skeptic replies that he has suspended all judgment as to whether or not the hammer is real. The person then asks the skeptic if he has ever had an illusion; that is, has he ever thought that something would appear, but it did not appear. The skeptic replies that he once thought that a god would appear to him but it did not. The person then explains to the skeptic that his illusion happened to be one example of the fact that whenever humans have illusions, they always prove to be useless. The skeptic agreed that in his case, his illusion proved to be useless. The person then holds up the hammer again and tells the skeptic that he can use that hammer to drive nails which is a creative act, but if the hammer were but an illusion, it would be completely useless and non-creative. Therefore, by his creative usefulness of the hammer, he can make it real. The skeptic answers with a puzzled look on his face.