Truth and Reality

When discussing reality, several questions emerge regarding what reality is. A reality, "the real situation that exist," (Merriam-Webster.com) consists of two forms-perceived reality and actual reality. One spends his or her entire life trying to decipher the difference between the two forms; yet to truly understand reality, it is essential that you comprehend both. Plato 's "Allegory of the Cave," Dick Gregory 's "Shame" and Frederick Douglass ' "Learning to Read and Write" illustrate examples of both perceptions. Furthermore, how conceptualization of reality helps establish who one will become.

We’ve all heard the stories of the Salem Witch Trials that occurred in 1692 and 1693. During these harsh times, lives were lost due to the strong religious beliefs of the Puritans who full heartedly believed that the Devil was present in everyday life and that he lived in the woods. In contrast to their popular belief at the time, real scientific evidence has been presented that the reason behind the Salem Witch Trials was actually Ergot Poisoning, not the Devil. According to the article, ergot is a fungus, “that affects the rye grain,” (PBS 2016), which causes numerous side effects. Many factors contribute to the ergot poisoning idea, such as the climate and growing conditions that ergot thrives in, what wheat rye was infected in relation to where the accused and accusers lived as well as the time span, and the symptoms of this type of poisoning.

Back in the 1960’s people did not have the knowledge that is here today, so Ergot fungus was something they most likely did not know about.  Gail Schumann mentions that “[b]efore the disease was understood,the Ergot were grouped up along with the rye grains and ingested when the flour was used for baking”( Schumann, “Ergot of Rye”).  It also is no surprise that they did not have the right medicine, “Susanna. He bid me come tell you, reverend sir, that he cannot discover no medicine for it in his book”(Miller, Act I. 41-42), to help cure the disease.  Even Linda Caropeal believes that the girls had ergotism, which is a disease caused by ergot, found in rye and other grains( Saxon, “What Caused the Salem Witch Trials”).  If the doctor of the town  could not even find a cure to help a girl who passed out, who is to say that he had medicine to cure

Several theories exist to explain why the witch hunts occurred. These theories each have contributing factors in the events leading up to the trials in Salem. First, the Ergot Fungus theory discusses the effect of ergot contaminated food on human beings, which clearly relates to evidence shared at the trials. This evidence includes the fact that ergot fungus affected rye, which was a main crop in Salem during the time of the witch trials. “Ergotism is caused by Claviceps purpurea, which affects rye, wheat and other cereal grasses (EF, #1).” “At that time, rye was the staple crop in Salem (EF, #1).” It also states that “ergot-contaminated food can lead to a convulsive disorder characterized by violent muscle spasms vomiting, delusions, hallucinations, crawling sensations on the skin, and a host of other symptoms, all of which, Linda Caporael noted, are present in the records of the Salem witchcraft trials (EF, #1).” Another important piece of information from this theory is that “nearly all of the

The article later on examines “In an effort to explain by scientific means the strange afflictions suffered by those "bewitched" Salem residents in 1692, a study published in Science magazine in 1976 cited the fungus ergot (found in rye, wheat and other cereals), which toxicologists say can cause symptoms such as delusions, vomiting and muscle spasms.” By stating this new-found resource, this gives the reading a logos appeal to reason the circumstance that there wasn’t anything supernatural involved with the hysteria in 1692. The outbursts caused by this unknown fungus and the resentment of the neighboring townsfolk heightened their suspicion toward themselves and

Nineteen were hung, one was pressed and tortured to death, hundreds were imprisoned, and five had died while waiting to be trialed in prison. They were just a victim of being someone’s personal vendetta. The witch trials were revolved around a group of women that were said to of witnessed witchcraft. These young women were thirsting after their enemies to get the type of justice they thought to believe was reasonable for things certain people had done in the past that enraged them. Witch hunts like these root back far, all the way back to New England. During the 17th century europe was swarmed with accusations of

1. What do you think Chalmers means by “fundamental reality,” and how does it relate to the idea of “multiple aspects of reality?”

From June through September of 1692, nineteen people, all having been declared guilty witchcraft, were hanged in Salem Village. Another man of more than eighty years was pressed to death under substantial stones for declining to submit to a trial on witchcraft charges. Many others confronted allegations of witchcraft. Handfuls grieved in prison for a considerable length of time without trials. At that point, very nearly when it had started, the agitation that cleared through Puritan Massachusetts finished.

Later on in 1976 a psychologist Linnda Caporael blamed the abnormal habits of the girls on the fungus ergot, Toxicologists say eating ergot-contaminated foods such as rye in which was abundant in Salem during this time. Ergot can lead to muscle spasms, vomiting, delusions and hallucinations. The fungus lives in warm-damp climates such as the swampy meadows near the Salem Village where rye is the staple grain during the spring and summer.

Ergot is a parasitic fungus that is known to grow on grains like rye, and any kind of cereal grains. In my belief the exchange of foods with theses grains is what caused the Salem people to have such a big outbreak during the Salem Witch Trials. To think that it could possibly be anything else that caused such trouble, would be silly to think it was witchcraft causing this. In every situation it was unavoidable to have received any type of rye, and for the Salem town it was just a bad time for this all to happen.

First of all, according to document N in Paragraph one Ergot is a parasitic fungus which grows on a variety of grains especially rye. This fungus contains 10 percent of LSD which can be found in seeds used by the Aztecs that are linked to hallucinogenic drugs. Warm, damp, rainy springs and summers were a great time for Ergot to grow. According to document B the hangings happened around summer (June-September). This means that the fungus Ergot was around because of the warm weather. So the people could have very well been eating this plant.

From June till September 1692 nineteen men and women died for being accused of being a witch or wizard. All these people were hanged on gallows hill except one old man who was eighty years old who was pressed to death because he refused to be on trial. He was pressed to death because they couldn't hang him since he was never put on trial.Over the next few months more than a 150 men women and children were accused

This started the hysterical beginning of the Salem Witch trials, which resulted in many women, men, and children being accused of practicing witchcraft. Out of the one hundred fifty people accused in Salem, twenty of them were executed as witches, while others rotted away and died in jail. The people of Salem did not discriminate who they executed or who they sent to jail so the result was a diverse range of citizens being accused.

What we think is reality will ultimately become our reality if we believe certain things about an individual; he/she begins acting in exactly that way.

Reality is not an objective thing that is imposed upon us, but is created by us. Reality does not exist externally but internally, as each individual or group interprets it, and is always changing. Due to these concepts sociologists often speak about the “social construction of reality” which is essential to understand when attempting to explain human social behavior. Since realty is the basis of people’s actions, W. I. Thomas states, “If people define situations as real, they are real in their consequences”. The “social construction of reality”, human social behavior and W. I. Thomas’s statement are three concepts that fit hand in hand and are important when trying to explain one another.