Terry, I have some questions, so that I can determine where your boundaries of metaphorical perception lay. I will use the answers to formulate a few scenarios for your amusement.
(1) Does the color blue exist? If so, in what way? What is "blue?"
(2) Does light exist? If so, in what way? What is "light?"
(3) Does love exist? If so, in what way? What is "love?"
(4) Do emotions exist? If so, in what way? What are "emotions?"
(5) Is the color blue real?
(6) Is light real?
(7) Is love real?
(8) Are emotions real?
From the weight of your posts here, I do not believe you have ever traveled very far in thinking these kind of things out. It seems you would rather quickly toss them aside in favor of things you can touch. I will be looking forward to what I hope will be a thorough and considered reply. You might try using a word processor to edit it, then copy and paste it after you are sure it's right so you don't have those gaps between paragraphs.
Respectfully,
OldSoul
1.This question isn't about "blue", it is about your definition of EXISTS. What actually exists is ostensible. We humans can put a name tag on actually existing things, phenomena or.......our imaginary constructs. Blue is our name tag for electromagnetic vibrations of a certain magnitude which is measurable. The clue to existing things is that they are quantifiable, measurable and available to pretty much anybody who aren't handicapped.
2.Blue is one part of electromagnetic phenomena we call light. Same answer as above. Radio waves, microwaves, etc. all are part of this phenomena.
3.LOVE is a CONCEPT and not a "thing" which exists. The concept of LOVE stems from the highest value a person places on a person, place, thing, idea. The emotional reaction to the object of that value is equal to the value. What people experience when they say "I LOVE" is the magnitude of the value they've placed on something/someone. You can measure the amount of time, thought, effort and money a person spends on something and that will indicate the magnitude of the value they've placed on it. The highest willingness to exchange indicates their passion or love. But, LOVE is a concept.
4.EMOTIONS are our physical reactions to the values (good or bad) we have. What we fear we react to with a physical and emotional reaction. What we desire we react to accordingly. EMOTIONS are a kind of physical bookkeeping of our values. We often make the error of "trusting our feelings" when we should be examining our values which led to the feelings instead.
5.You have asked the same question twice (see 1 above) and used different terminology. REAL connects with the REALity of existence. Did you realize this?
6.Same here. The change in terminology might indicate your confusion as to the meaning of REAL.
7.This is a more interesting question as far as language is concerned. Let me parse this. We can place a high value on the Virgin Mary. We might see a cloud formation that "looks like" the Virgin Mary to us. Our value system might lead us to buy in to the cloud/Virgin Mary formation as a miracle. Our emotional reaction would be as strong as our value system. Nothing about this, so far, is connected to reality. A mother might react in the same way to seeing their missing child suddenly appear in a crowd. The emotional reaction is experienced as "real" but it does not MEAN reality anymore than it means fantasy. Our values and our emotions are SUBJECTIVE. This means they are personal and feel solidly connected to something real TO US. But, confusing this with OBJECTIVE REALITY is an error of thinking quite common.
6. SUBJECTIVE
What does all this prove to you?
T.
