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Originally Posted by robbdn
Well said, Phage. Continuing along those same lines...
doesn't it seem that objective reality does exist? When my senses don't work right, the momentary failure automatically registers as "unreal" cognitively. At the same time what I experienced through my senses was definitely real, subjectively, the cognitive functions filter the experience out as non-conforming sensory information. Meaning it doesn't coincide with the objective rules of reality that have been laid out and trained into individuals by society.
I would like to pose that objective reality does indeed exist, but only as a construct. As such, it too is fallible, just as our senses are. Kind of cyclical logic, I know, but it works for me! (in other words, I'm still sane).
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Our only perception of reality
is what we can sense; failure of your senses would of course seem "unreal".
Your proposition that objective reality exists only as a construct is a bit different than my theory. We don't have enough information to say that it is
only a construct; it might exist and it might not. It is true that we are forced to use an objective reality that we admit is a construct, but that does not remove the possibility of there being a true objective reality that we cannot detect.
Of course, I think I can prove the point thoroughly moot. We have two options for the state of things:
1) There is a true, objective reality.
2) There is no objective reality, it is all subjective to the individual (and we cannot be sure there is anyone other than ourself existing).
In the first case it is logical to presume that our senses on average accurately represent the true reality more often than not, otherwise they would not have developed. Using data gathered from our senses over time we can form and refine a model of the true reality. This model will never be perfect, but will progressively become more accurate as time goes on.
In the second case we have a reality that may be unique to us. However, it also seems to be the case that we cannot change the reality merely by deciding something is so; the reality may be subjective but the subjectivity is not under our control. Unfortunately we still have the caveat that our senses cannot be trusted, and we can sometimes be mistaken about our subjective reality! We are forced to develop a model of an objective form for our subjective reality, in a method that is identical to what we built in the first case.
Therefore, if we operate identically in either case then our conclusion one way or another is meaningless.