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Full Idea
Dreams are more or less suggested by what we call waking life, and are capable of being more or less accounted for on scientific principles if we assume that there really is a physical world.
Gist of Idea
Dreams can be explained fairly scientifically if we assume a physical world
Source
Bertrand Russell (Problems of Philosophy [1912], Ch. 2)
Book Ref
Russell,Bertrand: 'The Problems of Philosophy' [OUP 1995], p.11
A Reaction
This sounds a bit circular, since scientific principles depend entirely on the assumption that there is a physical world. No doubt if we assume fairies, 'fairy lore' will explain everything. 'Explanation' is the basic concept here.
| 2047 | What evidence can be brought to show whether we are dreaming or not? [Plato] |
| 581 | Dreams aren't a serious problem. No one starts walking round Athens next morning, having dreamt that they were there! [Aristotle] |
| 23403 | You know you were dreaming when you wake, but there might then be a greater awakening from that [Zhuangzi (Chuang Tzu)] |
| 7285 | Did Chuang Tzu dream he was a butterfly, or a butterfly dream he was Chuang Tzu? [Zhuangzi (Chuang Tzu)] |
| 2305 | Waking actions are joined by memory to all our other actions, unlike actions of which we dream [Descartes] |
| 2357 | Dreams must be false because they seem absurd, but dreams don't see waking as absurd [Hobbes] |
| 5365 | Dreams can be explained fairly scientifically if we assume a physical world [Russell] |