Belief in Reality: Quality v. Quantity

Belief in Reality: Quality v. Quantity
It would seem obvious that the reality of one person would necessarily be the reality of another. However, as pointed out by philosophers throughout the history of mankind, this is simply not true. Belief in reality can actually be broken into two areas: reality that is in one’s mind that he can enjoy or hate, and reality that is in the world that merely objectively exists.
The Greek philosopher Plato was one of the first to discuss this and his observations are written in his Allegory of the Cave. In the cave that he described, a group of men existed for an unknown length of time. What is known is that at some point, they collectively examined their living conditions. At least one of them perceived that there might be something to see outside of their imprisonment. This was, in fact, an opening from the cave that led into the outside world. This is where reality becomes quite tricky. The man managed to take up enough courage to actually venture out. What he saw was, of course, a blinding light due to the length of time that he spent inside in darkness. However, he also stays outside long enough to become accustomed to the world. Now what is his reality?
It could be argued that his reality, or his belief in the reality he sees, is that of quality. He understands or at least believes that this new place is a good thing. It has value. New things have emerged for him that he assigns the value of enjoyment, like the sun, the moon, the water with its reflection. He begins to pity those inside for their lack. However, there is also something else going on. Is his belief in reality based upon the quality of the good, that emotional attachment that he can pass onto others? Or is it actually just a value that can be quantified. In other words, is it an emotional belief about good, or is it just an objective, measureable belief in it just being freedom? Plato seems to let his readers decide.
Walker Percy took up that same argument in the mid-twentieth century. He first describes the value or belief in the reality of emotional, qualitative attachments by giving the example of the Grand Canyon. When Garcia Lopez de Cardenas discovered the landmark, there were two things he could have been thinking, and they are both parts of the belief in reality. Percy first ponders whether Cardenas saw it as an amazing sight in a quality sense. So it was beautiful. Percy gives this value P for the natural beauty that Cardenas saw and would pass onto others. But Percy also goes on to give the example of whether a man who goes on a tour to see the Grand Canyon shares the belief value of P as reality. Or does he just go there to check it off his list as having seen the wonder? If he does, Percy argues, then he didn’t share in the reality belief of Cardenas based upon quality, but only did so to believe he saw something that had quantity reality, or just a measurable reality.
Another philosopher agrees with this way of looking at how people view reality. Benjamin Lee Whorf looked at how people assign values to words that describe reality as what they are in the habit of doing. Where one person might look at a floor, for example, they might describe it for its measureable, reality belief: it is just a floor, an object made of a material. But there is the qualitative way to look at it, too, he wrote. Someone may describe the same floor as comfortable or not comfortable as a place to sit. That is the belief reality of quality, instead.
The question posed by all three philosophers can be argued strongly in either direction. Plato, Percy and Whorf all indicate that there are two schools of thought when it comes to reality and belief. The concept is based upon just how one not only believes in the reality, but maybe more importantly how he describes the reality to others. This passing on of reality, in the face of acceptance or argument may actually hold the key to what reality truly is.
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Works Cited
Whorf, Benjamin L. Language, Thought, and Reality: Selected Writings of Benjamin Lee Whorf.
Ed. John B. Carroll. Cambridge, MA: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1956.