Reality is Matter
...ore. 4. Russell asks the question, “What reason, then, do we have for believing that there are such public neutral objects?” He answers that by saying yes, because people all see the same table even if they see it slightly different from each other (The Problems of Philosophy). 4. Parmenides says, “…a thing which is cannot change into something that is not…” (Introduction to Western Thought handout). Though he contradicts Heraclitus and Democritus, he still maintains that reality is matter. Pythagoras also disagrees with Heraclitus and Democritus by saying, “The universe was not chaos, but a cosmos, (meaning both order and beauty.” (Introduction to Western Thinking handout). His math theorem, (A2+B2=C2) is one way that he proves things in nature can be constant. These two both say that change and motion are not functions of matter. Cons 1. “Berkeley…holds that external objects exist only as they are perceived by a subject. Thus, the mind produces ideas, and these ideas are things; to be, then, is to be perceived.” (Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, George Berkeley). He says there actually is no such thing as matter, but that reality is really our thoughts and ideas; mind over matter (Russell, The Problems of Philosophy). Leibniz would also agree saying, “…what appears as matter is really a collection of rudimentary minds.” (The Problems of Philosophy) 2. Russell says that because of sense-data he knows that a table exists. “But I do not b...