The Delving Dictionary: Abcs of Reality—Volume Ii

By Ronald Spillers

Reality rocks—embrace the moment!

The Delving Dictionary strikes again with the ABCs of reality! Volume II will challenge those who take reality for granted, suffer through it each day, try to avoid it, or dress it up to serve their own desires. But what exactly is reality? And when we depart this astounding place, what, if anything, awaits us?

By examining some of the greatest minds in history—intellectuals and specialists in the disciplines of philosophy, physics, mathematics, sociology, religion, and the humanities—and objectively considering a wide range of opinions and tools, The Delving Dictionary reveals important clues about what constitutes the phenomenon of reality. Jovial, humorous, and down to earth, the book also explores the benefits of uniting the efforts of science and theology in their differing yet compatible quests for how and why the universe came to be. So delve right in and prepare to be surprised—even dazzled—by the conclusion’s simple grace.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Apr 25, 2019
• ISBN: 9781796030068

Ronald Spillers

Ron Spillers was born in Minneapolis and grew up in Des Moines, Iowa. He studied economics and philosophy at Iowa State and Drake Universities, did graduate work in economics at San Diego State University, and received his Juris Doctor from the New York University School of Law. Ron currently is a Flaneur Apprentice, and is a former Fortune 500 officer, corporate attorney, and professor of international management strategies at several universities. He lives in the foothills of New River, Arizona, with his high school sweetheart, Marilee Payne Murray. Volume III of ‘The Delving Dictionary’, “Exploringthe Wonders of Language,” will be published in 2019.

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Copyright © 2019 by Ronald Spillers.

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Rev. date: 04/30/2019

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CONTENTS

Prologue

PART ONE

A

B

C

PART TWO

Overview

Perceptions

Imagination and Intuition

Deductions, Inductions, and Abductions

Probability and Statistical Decision Theories: Edges of Reality

Assumptions and Faith

Tapestry of Reality

PART THREE

Digging Deeper, Rising Higher

Aphoristic Reality

Alternative Sources of Reality

Reality and Truth

Summing Up

For Britt, Charlie, Clarke, Jen, Jude, Kent, Raef, Stuart, and my remarkable sister, Gloria S. Hoffmann

In Memoriam: B. G. Elbert, Clarke Spillers, Dan Dailey, Don Middlebrook, Joe Kohl, John Thompson, John Tweed, Keith Boswell, Lyle Hoffmann, Randy Duncan, Rich Killebrew, Tom Kern, and Yale Iverson

I wonder, have I lived a skeleton’s life / As a questioner about reality.

—Wallace Stevens, First Warmth (1947)

PROLOGUE

Reality (n.)—a manifestation of human comprehension. It is everywhere—in all things our finite brain can assimilate, experience, or imagine—and it is always with us. Reality encompasses the known and unknowns of existence, extending infinitely beyond spatiotemporal boundaries. The goals of this manual are to suggest methods for dealing with the asperities of earthly reality other than through illusion or avoidance, reinforce the commonalities of science and theology, explore the possibilities of reality beyond life on earth, and practice the art of humor along the way.

When a friend exclaims things are going swimmingly, she is simply conveying her ability to rise, float, and progress above the waters of life comprising her particular reality. Our body mass will not sustain us above the surface without an earnest effort to burst through and continuously remain in motion. For many, accomplishing this is all the more difficult with the numerous weights we lug around in our heads and hearts. Compounding matters, agreement on the nature of reality has never been attained, with debates over the issue nearly as pervasive as reality itself, particularly among and between scientists, theologians, and philosophers. There are at least fifteen different (serious) definitions of reality, ranging from what actually is to existing facts and so on to matter, substance, and even truth—however one chooses to define it. So what is reality, and when we depart this astounding place, what, if anything, awaits us?

Philosophers, especially in their endless quests to comprehend and define reality, usually end up exhausted on their respective beds of speculation, notwithstanding the so-called proofs of God’s existence (hence ultimate reality) posited by saints Anselm and Thomas Aquinas. Human cognition is so frustrating for philosophers, whether amateur or professional. Nature’s power and beauty simultaneously dazzle, flaunt, and tease without letup, and nothing irritates a philosopher more than obvious yet undefinable sources and circumstances. For example, René Descartes unsuccessfully attempted to probe the murky crevices of human moods caused by those devoted to confronting daily reality. At the other extreme, Jean-Paul Sartre and Martin Heidegger journeyed with equal resolve into the realm of nothingness, merely one of countless forms of avoidance. And Henry David Thoreau, floundering about in his perspective of earthly reality, seized upon Blaise Pascal’s lament on the evils of human distractions and our lack of desire to seek peace and isolation. Accordingly, in 1851 he carved out his form of solitude on a pond in order to ponder, if you will, among other things, the worldwide scourges of reality. Thoreau concluded that human life was coated with false opinion, delusion, prejudice, pretense, hypocrisy, superficiality, mud, slush, and alluvium. Even more disturbing, he found no solid rocks, that is, clear benchmarks of reality, upon which to stand—and that was 164 years ago.

So here we are, well into the twenty-first century and, for the most part, still underwater, thrashing about to stay afloat. But life always has been about survival and reality avoidance. As T. S. Eliot phrased it, Humankind cannot bear very much reality. Adding to the mix of some seven billion differing perceptions of what’s taking place around them, earthly reality is both visible and hidden—and most importantly, in constant change. We can attempt to isolate and measure it with calculus, linear and differential equations, algorithms, or with highly sophisticated instruments designed to examine invisible particles like electrons, muons, or neutrinos. But for the most part, each of us defines and evaluates reality automatically with our own entirely unique mental perceptions. Continuously processing, adjusting, skirting, and/or denying reality consume about 85 percent of the average person’s daily mental energy, except perhaps for sheepherders and folks who have managed to soften reality through the use of a variety of substances. Reality bombards us, demanding constant evaluation. Admittedly, certain artists, actors, bankers, pro athletes, scientists, CEOs, theologians, and academicians manage to bypass the often dreary, conventionally established daily patterns and personal habits constituting the organizational principles of reality—doing so by immersing themselves in the conveniently narrow reality of their respective fields of endeavor. Meanwhile, the vast majority face daily trivial tasks nearly devoid of meaning or stimulation. What are the alternatives?

First of all, because of life’s ironies, both certainty and doubt are completely unreliable. Accept irony as one of the most ubiquitous, clever, persistent elements in life. It is the hydrogen of unfolding events, only more combustible. The best antidote for irony is laughter. Rather than occasionally gasping for air on a tiny patch of solid ground when the tide is out, only to be overwhelmed and washed out to sea again when daily life swamps you, begin discarding the rocks you carry around and cultivate a sense of humor. Admittedly, this is much easier in the South Pacific on Bora Bora or when hanging out among the cheerful Orcadians off the coast of northern Scotland. But it is wise to bear in mind a key postulate of Dame Iris Murdoch who, in both her novels and nonfiction, was bent on reminding us that life is merely a contingency. Or as Ernestine