As will become clear in the next subsection, the premise that "reality exists" is not what some philosophers call an "a priori" truth: that is, it is not deduced in a vacuum, but represents an integration of our experiences. Implicit in that understanding are two subordinate truths:
  1. something exists; and

  2. something is conscious of that existence.
We may refer to these "somethings" as "reality" and "consciousness" respectively. They give rise to the most basic fields of thought: metaphysics and epistemology.     Next page
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