Oh dear, this reminds me of A level Philosophy, I read too much Sartre and had an existential crisis.
For questions such as these you should read up on philosophical scepticism - it's the idea that turth claims can't be made. David Hume is a well known global sceptic and the early sophists such as Aristotle and Plato began the whole affair. For the argument from dreaming (which is the question you came up with) you need to check out Descartes, he wasn't a sceptic but utilised scepticism in order to prove the sceptics wrong.
There is also empiricism and idealism which are part of the branch of theory of knowledge - how do we know we know things?
The argument from dreaming can be refuted by the argument that dreaming is a tied concept. In other words you can't have "dreaming" without having "awake". Therefore you cannot be dreaming constantly or we would not have "awake" as a state.
That's only in brief just to get the idea across, you'll be able to find better discussions of it online, if you actually care enough to read them.
I guess all you can say is reality is what the majority agrees to. Anything else is an alternate reality.
Philosophy is fascinating but makes you crazy, I swear.
|
