The Possibility of a Transcendent Reality

The Possibility of a Transcendent Reality

The question if a transcendent reality is possible has been argued by many philosophers.  I believe that knowledge of a transcendent reality is possible.  Knowledge can be defined as, “the psychological result of perception and learning and reasoning (wordnetweb),” and a transcendent reality can be defined as anything that can’t be observed through the senses.  Through Einstein’s chasing light thought experiment and Descartes’ Meditations on First Philosophy: In Which the Existence of God and the Distinction of the Soul from  the Body are Demonstrated , I will prove that knowledge of a transcendent reality is possible.

            Albert Einstein invented a thought experiment that can prove that knowledge of a transcendent reality is possible.  He asked, “If I pursue a beam of light with the velocity c (velocity of light in a vacuum), I should observe such a beam of light as an electromagnetic field at rest though spatially oscillating (Norton).”  There was no way to prove this claim with evidence, but it is true.  There was no way to show the waves but this theory has proven to be true.  Clearly thought experiments are proof that a transcendent reality is possible. 

            A counterexample to someone who does not believe in a transcendent reality or thought experiments might say this.  Since there was no physical proof of such waves, clearly this experiment is not factual.  Without proof this statement is worthless.  To this I inform that this thought experiment was believed to be epistemic, but can now be scientifically proven.  That actually makes the idea of these waves and this experiment ontic.  There may not be proof of a transcendent reality now, but there can be in the future, changing our beliefs.

 Descartes once wrote a book called Meditations on First Philosophy: In Which the Existence of God and the Distinction of the Soul from the Body are Demonstrated, which is basically solely about transcendent reality.  This book is one of the staples of philosophy.  Descartes proves self-existence and discusses the distinction between reality and dreams.  “I think, therefore I am,” is a summary of one of Descartes’ meditations, basically proving one’s existence, because if they can think, then clearly they exist or else they wouldn’t be able to think. These ideas clearly show that even though there is no solid proof that these ideas are factual, there is a great chance that they are true. (Descartes)

Someone who does not believe in a transcendent reality may argue this point by saying that A.J. Ayer once asked, “[W]hat valid process of reasoning can possibly lead him to the conception of a transcendent reality?  Surely from empirical premises nothing whatsoever concerning the properties or even the existence, of anything super-empirical can legitimately be inferred (Ayer).”  So how can Descartes’ ideas be proven? Well, to this I will use an example brought to us by Carl Hempel.  Hempel wrote, “even extensive testing with entirely favorable results does not establish a hypothesis conclusively, but provides only more or less strong support for it (Hempel).” Clearly Descartes’ ideas cannot be proven entirely, but neither can anything.  We may believe something is factual, but really there is no absolute truth.  There is still a small margin for some event to occur to make a hypothesis false, no matter how strong the evidence is saying it is true. Therefore if we can accept things we believe as factual as true, we can accept a transcendent reality as being true.

Although there is no proof of a transcendent reality, it is possible that one exists.  Descartes wrote an entire book used in most introductory philosophy classes on such ideas, and Einstein has used a transcendent reality to advance science.  People may try to disprove such inquiries by saying there is no proof of a transcendent reality, but technically there is no entire proof about anything.  Clearly a transcendent reality is possible.

 

Source Cited

Ayer, A.J. The Elimination of metaphysics.

Readings in the philosophy of Science

Schick, Jr., Theodore. (2000) Mountain View, CA: Mayfield Publishing Co.

Descartes, Rene. Meditations on First Philosophy: In Which the Existence of God

and the Distinction of the Soul from the Body Are Demonstrated. New York, NY: Classic Books America, 2009. Print.

Hempel, Carl. “The Role of Induction in Scientific Inquiry”.

Readings in the philosophy of Science

Schick, Jr., Theodore. (2000) Mountain View, CA: Mayfield Publishing Co.

Norton, John. "Einstein's Most Famous Thought Experiment." www.pitt.edu. N.p., 04

 Feb 2005. Web. 8 Sep 2010. <http://www.pitt.edu/~jdnorton

Goodies/Chasing_the_light/index.html

Wordnet search 3.0. (n.d.). Retrieved from

 http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=knowledge