Is an apple really an apple?

Ved Joshi
Std XII

Is an apple really an apple?

Humans have hitherto questioned their existence in the most fascinating ways one can ever imagine. The ability that human bear to ask these questions is because of intelligence. We have been the result of a painful 4.5 billion years of evolution and it seems quite usual to question. The questions like, “Why the universe chose us to be the one?” or “Why is God planning out this convoluted path of life which has pain and suffering and happiness, at times?” We perhaps would not find the true nature of the reality.

The world has seen many great thinkers like Plato, Socrates, Ptolemy, Da Vinci, etc. It is highly unlikely that those great thinkers faced many internal struggles while questioning nature. Some turned to become agnostics: who believe that human intellect cannot understand the true nature of God. We are entities floating in the sea of unanswered questions. We would never get to know everything beyond the horizon. It is statistically unlikely for us to know everything which struts far out in the cosmos. We do not know if our brains would ever understand itself! Another interesting thing to note is that, the world we perceive is filtered through our senses. Therefore, we would never know if an apple is really an apple! The extreme form of this philosophical musing is called solipsism, which is a premise that the knowledge of anything outside one’s mind is unsure.

The extreme worldview of solipsism can also result in a rather fanatic belief called Nihilism. A nihilist is a person who believes that life has no inherent purpose and, in the end, everything is going to end. Nihilists believe the entire human species is insignificant and everyone is barred from knowing their own existence. Why wouldn’t anyone think so? We are stranded on this rocky planet fighting with beings of our own race.

One thing they miss out is that they do not realize that the universe is allowing them to exist. We have the mathematics and physics that can explain nature quite efficiently. The most fascinating thing is that everything, every equation, theory has come from our heads! No one shall argue that the genius of all the mathematics was pre-existent. The universe has selected us to observe itself! We should inculcate what is called as ‘Optimistic Nihilism,’ a belief driven by the need to make our lives worth from the time we have. Optimistically, we do find a purpose. The purpose of appreciating the universe. The whole blog discusses about pessimistic view of existence. These questions won’t even matter to us as we have our own goals. But it feels good to walk in those unanswered questions.

2 thoughts on “Is an apple really an apple?”

  1. Beautifully written blog. Hope people will inculcate Optimistic Nihilism – to make this world a better place to live.

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