Why does objective reality not exist

 

Our ancestors also lived in the real world, but it is very different from ours.

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 we can look at everything that surrounds us in a different way. It's like a multiverse that consists of many different real worlds. Three basic questions about reality

What makes something real in our world? For us, reality is about material things. Something that we can see in one way or another, such as atoms, trees, mountains, planets, people. If you look at the world from this angle, it means that everything that is immaterial and invisible to the eye, say, gods or demons, heaven or hell, is something unreal. These are just 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 about the person. People, cities, society, culture, government, economy. Why? As humanity, we consider ourselves special. We are sure that we are the only ones on this planet who have language, thinking and free will. And everything that does not relate to humanity is a part of nature. It's just a backdrop against which human culture shines. It's just an environment made up of things that we think we can use at will. What does it mean to be human in the real world?

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

Another reality

In fact, our real world is not eternal or universal at all. He is just one of many in which humanity has found itself in its long history. But what do other worlds look like then? Let's look at it 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 thing in this world were not people, but the gods. Why? Because the gods are amazing. They control everything that makes life possible: the sun, the rain, the harvest, the birth of children, personal health, family prosperity, sea voyages, victory in battle. The Athenians had more than 200 gods. And they were at arm's length. They lived in temples, participated in sacrifices, and had fun with ordinary people at festivals, feasts, and dances. In Athens at that time, no one separated themselves from nature. Human life was governed by the changing 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. There were no separate personalities in the real Athenian world. 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 "democracy", although it has nothing to do with the modern political system. 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 a "cosmic ecology" — a symbiosis of gods, people and native land.

The clash 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 is everything non-human subordinate to the human. And it's only in our world that people are born to be individuals. This happened because thanks to the scientific revolution and the innovative capitalist way of life, we have 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 about 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 misconceptions about reality. But why are we so sure we're 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 true? The problem of objective reality

For more than a hundred years, a wide variety of scientists, from physicists to philosophers, have questioned the very idea of objective reality. They assume that reality is not just a matter given to us by nature. This is something that we actively participate in when our consciousness interacts with the world around us. Think about it. To make sense of 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 turns out to be successful and sustainable, it means that it is true, because there is evidence of its effectiveness. Finally, when the model takes root in consciousness and becomes part of the surrounding reality, the effect of a stable real world begins to reproduce itself due to the interaction of consciousness and the external environment. Let's take an example. Why are people so sure in the modern world 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's self, family, and school that push a person to be a person. Everyone is treated as an individual, not as part of a "social organism." And a person's consciousness constantly conspires with the environment to make his personality seem completely natural. This means that no one has ever found themselves 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 trying their best to protect the traditions of their ancestors from modern "objective reality." They can teach us how to live in our real world and in other possible ones.