The Philosophy of Dreaming

Poster's Notes:
So sorry about not posting this yesterday, the NAC Agent that we are forced to download in order to use the school's Wi-Fi told me that I couldn't use the Wi-Fi until I updated my OS, but I couldn't update my OS without using the Wi-Fi. Don't ya just love vicious cycles? Anyway, here is my 1000 word essay on the philosophy of dreaming. 

The human brain, or in fact any organism’s brain, is indeed a fascinating thing. Our bodies operate because our brain tells it to. When we become injured, that body part sends messages to the brain, telling it that it has been wounded (which is what happens when we feel pain). Even after 100s of years, the brain continues to baffle scientists when it comes to how it works and is still a bit of a grey area in the world of science today. We know what it does and what parts of the brain do certain things, but the aspect of “why?” has been scientifically unanswered for decades. The funny part about this is since scientists can’t even figure out how the brain works, it practically leaves the door wide open for philosophers to come in and raise thoughts about reality, our consciousness, ethics, morality, and even our dreams. So what is a dream? A dream is defined as “a series of thoughts, images, or emotions occurring during sleep” or “an experience of waking life while asleep” and I believe that answers the question of “what is a dream” quite nicely. Contrary to this, we don’t exactly know much about dreaming, similar to the brain from which it occurs, and this again leaves philosophers to make their attempt at getting the job done. 

According to OwenFlanagan, the James B. Duke professor of Philosophy at Duke University, there are four major philosophical questions about dreaming:

1. How can I be sure I am not always dreaming?

2. Can I be immoral in dreams?

3. Are dreams conscious experiences that occur during sleep?

4. Does dreaming have an evolutionary function?

These questions hit on topics of metacognitive thinking, existentialism, metaphysics and even natural selection, all of which are extremely varied subject-wise. By all means, questions like these require deep inward thought and it takes a challenging mind in order to even bring up these questions (to which I greatly thank Dr. Flanagan for doing so). As there is no clear, nice-and-neat, here-you-go, kind of answer to these questions, my purpose behind this will be to delve a bit deeper in thought about these questions to make minds ponder a little more about what it means exactly to dream.  One of the best known anecdotes in philosophical literature is the story of “Zhuangzi and That Bloody Butterfly.” In the story, the Chinese philosopher dreamed he was a butterfly, and after he woke up, he contemplated how he could determine whether or not he was a human dreaming that he was a butterfly, or was he actually a carefree butterfly dreaming that he was Zhuangzi.

First on the list is the question, “How can I be sure I am not always dreaming?” asks the same question as well as builds on Rene Descartes’ “Dream argument”. This brings up the inquiry: which is the reality and which is the dream? And in an honest answer, there is no real way to tell (at least not yet). It is a classic debate of what is known as phenomenology – the study of the nature of being, consciousness, reality, etc. Through this question, we are asked to define what is “real,” and to define that would have to be in a relative sense, which is something philosophers seem to hate to do. One solution some suggest to finding an answer to whether or not one is in the dream or in the reality is to determine which “world” allows you to experience pain, hence the cliché “pinch me” trick in order to wake up when one believes they are dreaming. But this allows us to delve a bit deeper and ask if we can even feel pain while we are dreaming, as that subject is something one would hardly think about during the experience.

The next question, “Can I be immoral in my dreams?” takes a look at the viewpoint of ethics and responsibility. It brings up the conflict about if and how we are bound by our real-life morals and responsibilities even in the dream world. Simplifying the question a little more, we ask ourselves if we can even control our actions in our dreams, and if we can, what does that make lucid dreaming (the concept of being aware that he or she is dreaming)?

Moving on to the third question, we ask ourselves whether or not dreaming is a conscious state. More fun facts about the brain, roughly fifty percent of a dream is forgotten five minutes after waking up. After ten minutes, ninety percent is forgotten. This is not to say that all dreams are forgotten in that way, as there are many instances where some can vividly recall some of their dreams, as well as some inventors crediting their creations to what they have seen in their dreams (for instance, the tune for “Yesterday” by The Beatles came to Paul McCartney in a dream; Einstein’s Theory of Relativity was made because of a dream he had in his younger years). Therefore, it becomes difficult to call dreaming a conscious state.

The final question brings up the topic of natural selection. “Does dreaming have an evolutionary function?” When evaluating the concept of dreaming, we must ask ourselves if natural selection has influenced how we dream. Natural selection and evolution take place throughout the world in all living things, enhancing survival skills in order for longer endurance on this planet. Taking this into account, dreams have existed throughout history. Is there a reason behind it? Are we better survivors because of our dreams? Thus, segueing into the notion of déjà vu – which is having the feeling that a present occurrence has happened previously. Very frequently have people felt that they have seen something in real life similar to something that happened to them in their dreams. We must ask ourselves things like this because if dreams did not have a place in the theory of evolution, then why do we still dream?

As these topics are discussed, we must be reminded that questions like these require deep inward thought and it takes a challenging mind in order to even bring up these questions. They require thoughts of metacognitive thinking, existentialism, metaphysics and even natural selection. How can we be sure which is the dream and which is the reality? Are we really in control of ourselves during dreams or are we just along for the ride? Can we even call ourselves conscious during our dreams? And finally, why do we still dream? Is there some sort of larger reasoning for why we still retain the ability to dream? I suppose it could all be relative, or perhaps the answers involve something bigger than us all…