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Tallis in Wonderland

Reflections on Reality

Raymond Tallis holds a mirror up to the philosophical world.

Many of us are propelled into philosophy by the sense that things are not as they appear to be. This is not just a worry about getting some things wrong. Rather, it is a disturbing suspicion that we – all of us – may have got everything wrong. This uncertainty is directed equally towards the nature of the cup next to the word processor on which I believe I am typing this column as it is to the status of an entity such as an electron, the thoughts and feelings of those closest to us, or to what awaits us after death. Doubts about the true nature of the world of our daily lives, or, indeed, about our own nature, may darken into profound uneasiness, as when we fear that we are dreaming.

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