Courtesy: Christian Godefroy, positive club

Two students standing beneath the flagpole of the faculty building were engaged in a heated debate.

"But can't you see that it's the wind that is really moving and, in its movement, making the flag curl and flap?"

"You are mistaken," the second student replied, "because you cannot see the wind. How then can you conclude that it is making the flag move?"

A philosophy professor who happened to be passing by decided to interrupt the conversation. He approached the two students, took a draw on his pipe and said, "I'm sorry gentlemen, but have you ever considered the following argument: it is your mind that both flaps and moves."

What did the professor mean? Was he offering a solution to the problem of the two students? Yes, in the form of a profound truth: nothing is as we see it, because our minds create everything that we see, at the moment we see it. As such, there is no other reality than our self.

This theory, called a solipsism, is doubly useful. On the one hand it protects us against faulty appearances. On the other, it indicates a path to self knowledge. That's because if my mind affects everything (is, in fact, everything) then studying what is real is the same as studying my own being.

"Reality is just a point of view."

Philip K. Dick

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