Why objective reality does not exist

There is only one reality - our own. A universal world that is controlled by the laws of nature and science. We take it for granted. But everything that surrounds us can be looked at in a different way. Like a multiverse, which consists of many different real worlds.

Three basic questions about reality

What makes something real in our world?

For us, reality is material things. Something that we can somehow see, like atoms, trees, mountains, planets, people. If you look at the world from this angle, it means that everything that is immaterial and imperceptible to the eye, say, gods or demons, heaven or hell, is something unreal. They are simply beliefs and beliefs, subjective ideas that exist only in our minds. To be real, a thing must exist in the objective world and have a visible material form.

What is the most important thing in our real world?

It's all human related. people, cities, society, culture, government, economy. Why? As a human being, we consider ourselves special. We believe that we are the only ones on this planet who have language, thinking and free will. And everything that does not belong to humanity is part of nature. Just a backdrop against which human culture shines. Just a setting made up of things that we think we can use as we please.

What does it mean to be human in the real world?

For us, this means being a person who, if you think about it, lives primarily for himself. We believe that nature created us this way, endowed absolutely everyone with reason, rights, freedom and personal interests, so that we develop and compete with others for the most valuable life resources.

Another reality

In fact, our real world is not at all eternal and universal. It is just one of many that humanity has found itself in over its long history. But what do other worlds look like then? Let's look from the point of view of the Athenians from ancient Greece.

Their world was filled with what we consider unreal. Spirits, nymphs, fate, oaths and curses, souls and other mystical energies and magical powers. And the main things in this world were not people, but gods. Why? Because the gods are amazing. They control everything that makes life itself possible: the sun, the rain, the harvest, the birth of children, personal health, family wealth, sea travel, victory in battle. Athenians It wasG. Anderson. Retrieving the Lost Worlds of the Past: The Case for an Ontological Turn / The American Historical Review over 200 gods. And they were at arm's length. They lived in temples, participated in sacrifices, had fun with ordinary people at festivals, feasts and dances.

In Athens at that time, no one separated himself from nature. Human life was subject to the change of seasons, the natural cycles of plants and animals. Even the Athenian land was not just a territory. She was a goddess. A living goddess who once gave birth to the first Athenians and since then has taken care of all her descendants, giving them soil, water, crops and stones for houses and temples.

In the real world of the Athenians, there were no separate personalities. Each person was inextricably linked with his family, and all families had to not only live together, but also work as a single organism. It was called "demos", and this way of life is called "democracy", although it has nothing to do with the modern political system. The Athenians were born to serve society, to preserve families and the “social organism”. In general, life in ancient Athens was supported by what we might call "cosmic ecology" - a symbiosis of gods, people and native land.

Collision of two realities

In our modern world, the reality of the Athenians seems strange, exotic and… unreal. However, it largely coincides with the reality of the inhabitants of Egypt, China, Mexico, Peru, India, Bali and other countries of that time. They lived by the same laws - they believed in the gods and served their society.

From the point of view of history, it is our real world that is strange and exotic. Only our world is completely material. Only in our world everything non-human is subordinated to the human. And only in our world people are born to be individuals. This happened because thanks to the scientific revolution and the innovative capitalist way of life, we created our own unique reality.

And we are absolutely sure that only our reality is correct. That historically people have always lived in it, whether they understood it or not. Just think how arrogant this assumption is. We believe that all the great civilizations of the past are just lucky coincidences, because they are built on myths, illusions and false ideas about reality.

But why are we sure that we are right? Why do we think we know more? Why can't we take the real world of the people of the past seriously? It's simple - we are convinced that modern science provides us with the only true objective knowledge about reality. But is it?

The problem of objective reality

For more than a hundred years, scientists of all kinds, from physicists to philosophers, have been questioning the very idea of ​​objective reality. They suggest that reality is not just matter given to us by nature. This is what we actively participate in creating when our consciousness interacts with the outside world.

Think about it. To comprehend his experience, a person creates a model of the real world. And he uses it as the basis for his life with all its practices, norms and values. If the model is successful and sustainable, then it is true, because there is evidence of its effectiveness. Finally, when the model takes root in the mind and becomes part of the surrounding reality, the effect stable real world begins to reproduce independently due to the interaction of consciousness and external environment.

Let's take a look at an example. Why in the modern world are people so sure that they are all individuals by nature? Because at a certain historical stage, a group of sociologists in Europe decided so. Their model of a world full of competing personalities became the basis of a new way of life - capitalism with its unprecedented level of wealth. This model was adopted by everyone who grew up in this society. It itself, family and school push a person to be a person. Everyone is treated as an individual, and not as part of a “social organism”. And the consciousness of a person constantly colludes with the environment so that his individuality seems completely natural.

This means that no one has ever found himself in a truly objective reality. Different people belonged to different real worlds, which were created by models from human consciousness and the environment. This means that humanity has always lived in something similar to the multiverse.

Moreover, alternative models and alternative realities still exist. Look at the Amazon, the Andes, southern Mexico, northern Canada, Australia, and other places where indigenous peoples are doing their best to protect the traditions of their ancestors from the modern "objective reality." They can teach us how to live both in our real world and in other possible ones.