# what is...
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is/21412
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [June 5, 2000, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is/21412 "2000-06-05T03:18:05Z")
**Posts on this page:** 5
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@jjjfishe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjjfishe)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2000, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is/21412/1 "2000-06-05T03:18:05Z")
real? My philosophy teacher brought up the question and it caused a huge debate in class… what is real? Of course I thought my answer to that question was that matter is real. Any object that you could touch (a pencil) was real… but then he said…then what is love, trust, courage… are those real?
Could it be that ideas are real. The idea of love…, the idea of a pencil… Not necessarily the object itself… but the idea of that object…
What do you think?
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### Author:  [@ChiefScott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ChiefScott)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2000, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is/21412/2 "2000-06-05T03:25:08Z")
Reality is what you believe it to be.
Your reality is no more real to me than Santa Claus.
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### Author:  [@DVous\_Means](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DVous_Means)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2000, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is/21412/3 "2000-06-05T03:29:36Z")
Reality is for those of us who can’t handle drugs.
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### Author:  [@SSgtBaloo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SSgtBaloo)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2000, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is/21412/4 "2000-06-05T03:31:26Z")
“Nothing unreal exists.”
Of course, that calls my own existence into question, but I like the sound of it anywa…_Poof!_
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### Author:  [@soulsling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/soulsling)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2000, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is/21412/5 "2000-06-05T03:44:29Z")
search yourself to find what is real. if it feels real, it is. nothing lasts forever, and everything doesn’t.
this is of course the philosophical way to look at it:
We creat our own reality. Our own worlds. we create an entire population in our minds. we create our own personalities, we become what we want to become, what we project ourselves as becoming. we classify and judge others when we meet them and assign them personalities as well as a role in our lives or worlds. your reality, is your creation. [Here is a post](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=25837) of mine describing why i believe LOVE is real if that helps you at all. Why can’t ideas be real? Doesn’t an idea turn into something more? evolve if you will… as a baby grows into an adult.
What do you think? 😉