PearlSeeker
Well-Known Member
Does objective reality exist indepenently of observation? I think that question is unanswerable, but few scientists and only a handful of philosophers even ask it, and most that do would be inclined to declare objective reality as axiomatic, and then declare subjectivity to be a handicap that must be overcome, rather than a reality which itself must be acknowledged.
Another approach is to acknowledge the inevitable subjectivity of our unique human perspective, and ask how then do form, order, and perception interact without attempting to reduce any one to the other. Since every view is a view from somewhere, if we want to understand things as they are as far as is humanly possible, don't we have to begin by acknowledging that object, observer, and act of observation are intrinsically and inseperably connected? Any description of an experiment has to include a description of the laboratry in which it is undertaken, and any description of the universe has to include an account of the consciousness which describes it, in order for either to be complete.
We are not separate from nature, though we are alienated from it; this is a function of our limited perception, but it's also a function of ego, which wants to preserve it's hegemony over the psyche. Because of this alienation, which is really a false perception, we try to understand nature, life the universe and everything, as though we were looking at it from the outside. But we are not outside the universe, we are inside it looking out, while at the same time the universe, or all we know of it, is within us. And only by taking a holistic approach to internal and external realities, can we really hope to understand the world and our place in it.
Objective reality is by definition independent of observation. If not, then it's simply not objective reality. First thing that we usually think of as such are persons and everyday physical objects. It's common sense immediate knowledge to think so. Of course there is also subjective reality - emotions, colors, sound... Some subjective perceptions are shared by many and some are individual.
There is objective knowledge and there is subjective knowledge. The problem is when someone wants to reduce or mix up things. Aquinas’s 5th Way is an example of objective knowledge.
For Aristotle the same form exists in the intellect and in the thing outside it. There is no gap between mind and reality. This is also one of the basic assumptions of science. However, some modern philosophers were sceptic:
- I might be in a dream or matrix (simulation, virtual reality).
- There is no difference between science and woo-woo.
- Solipsism.
etc.