What is real?

6 perspectives

1. Plato

   Athens

   Reality has two levels: fleeting appearances and eternal Forms

2. Nagarjuna

   Southern India

   All things are empty (śūnya) of independent, permanent essence

3. Zhuangzi

   State of Song, China

   Perspective determines what seems real

4. Baruch Spinoza

   Amsterdam

   There is one substance: God, or nature

   “Do not weep; do not wax indignant. Understand.” — attributed maxim, reported by later writers

5. Adi Shankara

   Kerala → Himalaya

   Brahman alone is real; the world of separation is appearance

6. Ludwig Wittgenstein

   Vienna → Cambridge

   The limits of my language mean the limits of my world

   “The limits of my language mean the limits of my world.” — Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus §5.6