Jim Baggott - A Beginner’s Guide to Reality

JIM BAGGOTT

A Beginner's Guide to Reality

PENGUIN BOOKS

PENGUIN BOOKS

Published by the Penguin Group

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First published 2005

Copyright Jim Baggott, 2005

All rights reserved

The moral right of the author has been asserted

The author and publisher are grateful to the following for permission to reproduce material: Money, words and music by George Roger Waters. Copyright 1973 Roger Waters Music Overseas Ltd, Warner/Chappell Artemis Music Ltd, London W6 8BS. Lyrics reproduced by permission of IMP Ltd. All rights reserved. Every attempt has been made to contact copyright-holders. The author and publisher will be glad to make good in future editions any omissions brought to their attention.

Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher's prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser

ISBN: 978-0-141-04232-9

To Mum,
in memory of Dad

Contents

Preface

Where are you right now?

Maybe you're standing in a bookstore, flicking idly through the pages of this book. Maybe you're sitting on a train, or in an airport lounge, killing time. Maybe you're sitting up in bed, reading this as a way of shutting out the mental clamour of your day prior to shutting down.

How do you know any of this is real?

We take the reality of our world very much for granted. And why not? Reality does have this habit of always being there when we wake up in the morning. It remains pretty consistently predictable through the day, and is still with us at night when we drift off to sleep.

This reality has a social dimension we live and work alongside other people; we make money, we spend money (in bookstores, for example). We get married. We vote in elections.

This reality also has a physical dimension we live in a world that contains physical objects, such as books, houses, cars, trains, mountains, rivers and trees. These objects give us sensations, of sight, taste, smell, hearing and touch. Underpinning all this is supposed to be a long list of tiny unobservable physical objects that scientists tell us make up the larger objects that we see and interact with. These tiny physical things are molecules, atoms, protons, neutrons, electrons, photons, and many more things besides, all dancing on the stage of three-dimensional space, to the tune of one-dimensional time.

This book is an exploration of reality from the social to the perceptual to the physical level. My aim is to lead you down through these levels in search of something we can point to, hang our hats on and say this is real . Organized into three parts, it asks three basic questions. Is money real? Are colours real? Are photons real?

Surprisingly, the answers aren't at all obvious, and many are quite disturbing. At each step the book examines some of the things that have been said about reality by a few of the world's greatest thinkers, from the philosophers of ancient Greece to modern scientists and social theorists, all kept firmly within the bounds of common comprehension.

This is basically a philosophy book. It starts with aspects of social theory and the philosophy of society, takes in classical, classical modern and contemporary philosophy, and ends with what I have always preferred to call natural philosophy, what others might call physics. If you have no background in social studies, or philosophy, or science, do not be alarmed, for you will not need it.

Philosophy is a perfectly natural human activity. We engage in philosophical speculation about the nature of our reality virtually every day. With a little effort, we can analyse and interpret these speculations in ways that help us first to recognize the nature of the problems that might exist with our common-sense conceptions of reality, and secondly to appreciate where some solutions might come from. Most importantly of all, if we can gain enough understanding of the problems and their possible solutions then we can form opinions of our own. So, this is a book for anyone who has ever wondered what is real, and how we know.

My thanks go to those with whom I have discussed both the idea of this book and its content; specifically Peter Atkins, John Blackman, Marsha Filion, Les Naylor and Marga Vega. I'd also like to thank the following for permission to reproduce extended direct quotes from their works or song lyrics: Andy and Larry Wachowski, Peter Gabriel, Roger Waters, Macmillan Ltd, the University of Michigan Press and Warner Brothers. Special thanks go to Jon Turney, my editor at Penguin Books, for asking the question. As usual, any errors and misconceptions found herein are all my fault.

It goes without saying that this book would not have been possible without the love and support of my family.

JEB, Reading, July 2004

PROLOGUE

Follow the White Rabbit

... Alice started to her feet, for it flashed across her mind that she had never before seen a rabbit with either a waistcoat-pocket, or a watch to take out of it, and burning with curiosity, she ran across the field after it, and fortunately was just in time to see it pop down a large rabbit-hole under the hedge . In another moment down went Alice after it, never once considering how in the world she was to get out again . Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

All long journeys, as they say, start with the first step. Our starting point is provided by our common-sense view of what constitutes our everyday reality. Take a moment to stop and think. If you had to note down the key features of your reality, and describe them to a friend or a colleague, what would you say?

Think of green grass, a gentle stream, a blue sky and a bright yellow sun rising above a distant horizon. Think about a typical day in your life. Think of rising in the morning, going to work, striving to earn enough money to pay for the things that make life worth living: a nice home environment, a car, entertainment, a holiday.

You might be mildly troubled. Perhaps there is a sense in which you feel bound by unwritten laws, constrained by invisible conventions that are quite real to you but which, like liquid mercury, you can't quite put your finger on. Perhaps you feel that you have tended in the past to take reality at face value. Maybe you feel that this is a reality not of your making and not of your design, in which you try to exercise what free will you can.

Perhaps the first thing we would want to admit is that reality should be independent of human beings. Reality should surely be independent of our ability to conceive it and form theories about it. The fact that humankind has developed to the point where we can construct elaborate theories about reality should have no bearing on the very existence of this reality. How could reality depend on having someone around clever enough to conceive of it? Did the reality that we know have to wait for some suitably qualified smart alec to come along? With a Ph.D.?

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