What's real? - Can we know if there is such a thing as objective reality?
I feel, and I know I'm real
The other day, I was talking about peyote, explaining something that happened when I took this powerful medicine.
<<But was what happened real?>> she asked.
I said "That's a funny question. What do you mean when you say 'real'?"
<<This table is real. I can touch it; I can feel it.>>
"You can touch things and feel things in dreams too. Does that make them real?"
Of course, it might take a lifetime to fully answer the question "What's real?" Feeling something proves that you are real, but it can never prove that the thing you feel is real.
How can we know what is constant?
Someone told me recently that the speed of light is a constant, and we know that because of the data. I told him, let's say you saw your neighbour's car parked in the street on Monday, and again on Tuesday. Would it be correct to say that the car was always there? Even if you saw the car there 10 times or 100 times, you couldn't say it for sure. No matter how much data we have about the car being there, we cannot say that it has always been there - we can only assume. The same applies to the speed of light - we can measure it many times, but never know for sure that it is constant.
Likewise, no matter how much data we have about our world, we cannot say that there is an underlying objective reality - something that exists without us having to look at it, that doesn't change no matter who is looking at it. The data that we have at hand, points to the idea that reality is not the same for all of us, that our world has little constancy - people can witness the same event and have different versions of it... so we cannot say that there is any such thing as objective reality.
What your friends say doesn't count
Objective reality is something that we think exists because we have friends to back us up. But knowing that your friends believe the same thing doesn't prove anything. If you and all of your friends believe that the earth is flat, or that it's round, that doesn't make it so. How are you going to prove that your friends even exist? By getting your other friends to say they do?
In logic, this is called "the fallacy of appeal to popular opinion". It's easy to point to millions of people who believe something, and say that must be the case. But it's not always true, and we can look at many cases where millions of people have been wrong about something. Some people call those cases "history".
Why does any of this matter?
It matters because when you talk to people, you're probably going to disagree over facts, and over opinions. You might be tempted to think that the other person is "wrong" (I know I often am). But if we don't know that there is such a thing as objective reality, perhaps what is wrong for you, is right for them. It may be that you're simply viewing reality from a different angle. It may even be that you're dreaming, and arguing with yourself.
You might start to get angry when you disagree with someone. Remember that there is a chance that you know around about zero percent of nothing, and you can remind yourself to be humble, and stay calm.
Life is a journey, an adventure, and a blessing. Let's spend it together.
About me
My name is Kurt Robinson. I grew up in Australia, but now I live in Guadalajara, Jalisco. I write interesting things about voluntaryism, futurism, science fiction, travelling Latin America, and psychedelics. Remember to press follow so you can stay up to date with all the cool shit I post, and follow our podcast where we talk about crazy ideas for open-minded people, here: @paradise-paradox, and like us on Facebook here - The Paradise Paradox
Some other cool posts
Here are some other posts of mine to check out:
Imagine for a moment that we didn't call it reality, but maybe something like "the great dream." How would that affect our collective perception of it? Would we feel the need to find out what it "really" is?
This is an example of how language creates reality. Or an example of how language changes the great dream.
Thanks @kendewitt, that's a good way to put a completely different spin on it.
I love this post. Lately, I've been fascinated by the understanding that "reality" can only be experienced subjectively. We can talk about an objective reality and speculate about it, but we can only experience it subjectively. An objective reality that can only be experienced subjectively is ultimately a subjective reality, no matter what you call it. There may be something "out there", but there is no way to look at it (or anything) objectively. In that sense, objective reality can't exist. It's just a weird concept we've created. Wow. Typing that made my brain hurt.
Yes, that's another way to look at it. It's interesting to try to imagine what experiencing an objective reality directly would look like.
Here's another idea that I had going through my mind for a while... I was talking about the nature of reality with my friend who is currently serving in an ashram. In the belief system of his school, Bliss is Ultimate Reality. It made me think... When you look at a chair, your sensory experience of the chair is no guarantee that the chair exists. But when you experience Bliss - or any other emotion for that matter - it is a guarantee that Bliss does exist, because the experience of Bliss is indistinguishable from Bliss itself.
Actually, we know objective reality exists, because the universe existed before life existed at all, yet it still did the same things in the same way it does now, which is why our planet is in orbit around a star, within a galaxy, and so on.
This is cause and effect. Because the moment life on Earth began was part of that chain of causes and effects which allows time and space in the universe to move forward, all events within life's timeline are part of that chain. Reality cannot be different for one element of that chain than another.
It is humans who misread reality. Not reality being different for each human.
If you say reality is different for each person, you are assuming that each person has perfect knowledge and understanding of reality. They do not.
Our brains are flawed, and filled with instincts and assumptions about things, and so it is easier for us to be wrong, than it is for reality to be different for each of us.
This isn't some sort of open-ended riddle. Reality is objective and exists outside of humans. Humans are the ones who have different brains, which yield different opinions, feelings and beliefs than other people.
Thanks for your comment @heretickitten. I'll consider what you've said more closely, but for now here are some ideas
How do you know that the universe existed before life existed?
Hm... I don't think I am assuming that. They might have perfect knowledge of their own subjective reality, or they might have imperfect knowledge of their own subjective reality.
How do you know that?
The other thing is, you're assuming I'm making a positive claim about the nature of reality. I'm not. I'm just saying that we can't know that reality is objective.
@churdtzu
I wrote something along those lines about morality
https://steemit.com/morality/@kyriacos/morality-is-subjective
Resteemed
Much appreciated @goldmatters
Great post :)
Thanks
This is objective reality. You can understand more here.
That article seems to be just a series of assertions or definitions, not an argument. Is there an argument in the other pages?