Does objective reality exist?

This resource is a wikidebate, a collaborative effort to gather and organize all arguments on a given issue. It is a tool of argument analysis or pro-and-con analysis. This is not a place to defend your preferred points of view, but original arguments are allowed and welcome. See the Wikidebate guidelines for more.

Subject classification: this is a philosophy resource.

Most people assume that there's an objective (physical) reality in which all of us exist, with facts that are universally true and more than just a matter of opinion. However, others argue that there is no such thing as objective reality, that everything is subjective and that anything can be questioned or legitimately disagreed with, even facts that used to have near-universal agreement.

So, who is right about the nature of reality? Is there an objective reality that we are all a part of? Does objective reality truly exist?

Definitions

• Subjective (Individual) reality means that something is actual depending on the mind. For example: someone walks by a flower and experiences the beauty of the flower. Would you say that the experience of beauty is dependent or independent of the mind? Would the experience of the form in general of the flower be dependent on the mind?
• Objective (Physical) reality means that something is actual (so it exists) independent of the mind but is established by consensus. For example: while no one is nearby, a meteor crashes into a car, putting it on flames, leaving only a pile of ashes. Are any of these events depending on some mind? It is actually hard to state a purely objective reality example, as one needs to describe it in concepts that are interpreted by the mind. Can you see the difficulty? Anything related to experience, like form, weight, heat, color, beauty, etc, is dependent on a mind. So we could say, that objective reality is formless. Only when observed by a mind, there is form. This has lots of similarities with a computer rendered game. The scenario is there, but unless it is rendered on the screen, it is formless. So objective reality is here, but unless it is 'rendered' on consciousness, it is formless.

Objective reality exists

Arguments for

• Pro All humans have physically similar brains and nervous systems, which result in similar interpretations of the same stimuli. The fact that two people, located side by side, and looking in the same direction, describe similarly what they see, reasonably indicates that they are reacting to a single external reality. This fact is reasonably attributable to there being a single external reality, while at the same time multiple various internal realities whose differences are a result of various nervous systems functioning with various experiences.
  • Objection Does agreement of description necessarily imply objectivity? Imagine if half of humankind saw the color "green" as the color "red". Note that there would be a clear subjectivity of how we view the environment. Half the population would see a different color than the other half. We would no longer agree.
  • Objection Is it necessarily true that we share a similar physical brain structure? Certainly, according to science, this is very true, but that says nothing about the existence of an objective reality, because where science comes from is perceived, whether directly by us or through the measurements and assumptions we make, which is an inherently subjective process. This argument takes subjective ideas to be objective, and draws assumptions from them.
• Pro There is no evidence that objective reality doesn't exist, so Occam's razor suggests we ought to accept it as the simplest possible explanation for reality.
  • Objection If a particle or set of particles in quantum physics can be in 2 different contradictory states at the same time, as in the Schrödinger's cat paradox, that could be considered evidence to the contrary.
    • Objection Particles and organisms don't follow the same rules of physics. Schrödinger came up with this thought experiment to mock quantum physics shortly before he quit.
    • Objection Quantum physics might seem contradictory, and in fact it is with traditional logic, but if one uses quantum logic, which theoretical physicists have developed and which is the same as traditional logic other than abandoning the law of commutativity, there are not any contradictions in it at all.
  • Objection Occam's Razor is not necessarily true, it is just a general guideline to help people guess the most likely answer to a question. It's still wrong sometimes. In the case of objective reality, at best it proves that it's "more likely" to exist than not, whatever that means.
    • Objection Occam's Razor is, by definition, not definitive. As said in the objection, it is at best an argument for the preponderance of evidence, so saying it is wrong sometimes is recursive. 
  • Objection The concept of "simple" is subjective due to the subjectivity of the construction of definitions, so it cannot be used to prove the existence of objectivity, which requires the definitions to be true regardless of perspective (or lack of perspective).
• Pro The theory that we all exist in an objective reality is the best theory anyone has ever come up with to describe the conditions in which we appear to exist, so unless anyone develops a better theory we should stick with it. In the same way, there is no evidence that objective reality does not exist, thus there is a huge probability that it does actually exists
  • Objection This just assumes that it exists for the sake of ease (similar to the Occam's Razor proof above). That is an own opinion on this matter, not a proof.
  • Objection We don't necessarily need to assume anything at all regarding reality and whether or not an objective reality exists. We can remain agnostic on the subject until there is sufficient evidence to prove things one way or the other.
    • Objection Being agnostic on the subject is not a position against the existence of objective reality, but instead a neutral position that doesn't take either side in the argument. The argument does not affirm that objective reality exists, but that it is very likely that it does. This could be called an agnostic position too, but people who are agnostic on the subject ought to lean in favor of whatever seems to be the most probable explanation.
• Pro All realities exist, including both objective and subjective realities, which exist as parallel realities or as a kind of multiverse. In other words, the philosophy of modal realism is correct.
  • Objection Modal realism is too radical of a multiverse theory to take seriously. It proposes that all proposed fictional worlds (not just proposed real worlds) actually exist.
  • Objection This doesn't prove objective reality, because it doesn't prove that all realities exist. If all realities existed, then objective reality could exist too, but it isn't necessarily true that all realities exist.
• Pro If objective truth doesn't exist, that fact would be in and of itself an objective truth, disproving itself.
  • Objection This only proves the existence of an objective truth, not of an objective reality. No argument is given to prove that an objective truth implies an objective reality.
• Pro Some facts have no non-objective interpretation, and are universally accepted as objectively true. Example: The Statue of Liberty exists in Upper New York Bay. There is no alternative, subjective interpretation possible.
  • Objection Blind people can not see the statue in the same way. Nor can people who have lost their sense of touch feel the statue in the same way. Our perception depends on our available biological configuration as it were.
  • Objection Outliers do not disprove a general rule. For example the fact that certain people are born without arms does not disprove the general rule that humans have 2 arms. Similarly the fact that the blind person cannot see the statue does not disprove that it is an objective existence.

Pro Since our realities all interact and we are able to independently observe the same things and do experiments that have reproducible results, clearly we are all part of the same reality.

• • Objection This is not necessarily true, you could be a figment of my imagination, or we could both be figments of somebody else's imagination.
    • Objection I could be a figment of your imagination, but we can't both be figments. You know that your consciousness exists, because in order to doubt it, something must exist which is capable of experiencing doubt. This is the only thing that you can know to be incontrovertibly true.
      • Objection If we are all imagined by a specific entity, then that entity is part of objective reality.
• Pro We have strong evidence of an objective reallity since we can at least think of it. As Descartes said, "I think, therefore I am."
  • Objection During the Deep Sleep state we don't say I think there I am,  so this claim is not all true.
  • Objection "I think, therefore I am" is a logical fallacy because fictional characters in a story can say that, but it doesn't turn them into real people.
    • Objection Simply because a fictional representation of an actual phenomena is presented to the reader does not invalidate it as an actual phenomena outside the fiction.
  • Objection The idea that "I think therefore I am" is based off of a certain assumption: that the "I" in question really does think. I'm sure that just about anyone will say that they have subjective (though objective can be argued) proof to themselves that they indeed do think, simply by being able to wonder if they do. But in this case, sentience is being questioned, and thus the ability to fulfil the criteria of thinking in the first place is as well.

Arguments against

• Con Recent physics experiments suggest objective reality isn't real but directly relative to individual perceptions, and is basically a subjectively manifested, consciously perceived, and somewhat mutually agreed upon collective manifestation.
  • Objection The experiment that the article refers to has tested the Wigner's friend thought experiment where the friend's "measurement" seems to not be a proper observation (which would collapse the wavefunction). Instead, is a unitary action on the state being measured, and the results of the experiment (unsurprisingly) reflect that. The result simply means that it doesn't matter which observer collapses the wavefunction as long as they are all entangled. In day-to-day scenarios we deal with situations where (we assume) the quantum system has already collapsed, which is why we don't see most quantum effects in daily life and why things like the Schrodinger's cat never happen. This "subjectivity" in the experiment only holds for unobserved quantum systems.
• Con From an objective perspective, the objective world exists and the subjective one does not. "Feelings", for instance, exist only as neuron firing patterns and not as they are felt subjectively. Similarly, from a subjective perspective, the objective reality does not exist. Objects exist only as their perceptions and affects on subjective reality, not as a thing-in-itself. So, both realities are mutually exclusive.
  • Objection That we can't reason about the nature of subjective experience inside an objective frame for reality does not prove that the subjective experience doesn't exist. Neither does the fact that we don't know that objects exist as things-in-themselves when reasoning about reality from a subjective perspective prove that they don't. Absence of proof is not proof of absence.
• Con The existence of an objective reality has never been proven, and all of what we think of reality could just be something similar to the Matrix or a computer simulation or, why not, there is a probability that we were just characters in someone's dream.
  • Objection Those are all unlikely scenarios which are similarly unproven.
    • Objection “Unlikely” is itself a subjective notion. The fact that those theories are unproven certainly does not prove the opposite to be true.
  • Objection Even if the Matrix scenario were real, the Matrix itself exists within a larger reality that actually must be objective, and in that reality, the beings have physical bodies hooked up to the Matrix. Similarly with the other scenarios.
  • Objection As a matter of fact, probability shouldn't really be assigned here; this is to prove whether or not an objective reality exists, not if we can ever find such an objective reality.
• Con Reality nowadays is just too ridiculous to be true. Too many practically unbelievable things keep being reported as factual.
  • Objection This reflects a failure of imagination on the part of the human mind to understand and accept objective reality. It does not disprove objective reality. As the saying goes, "Truth is stranger than fiction".
    • Objection Multiple people can work together to create a very intricate and detailed narrative that runs counter to reality. Who is to say that the most popular narrative used to describe what people call "objective reality" is not similarly false, with its elaborate complexity and absurdity the result of the cooperation of many people?
      • Objection There is a major qualitative difference between double-blind peer-reviewed scientific studies with reproducible results and conspiracy theories or tall tales that are simply made up. This argument deliberately ignores this in order to equate the two and dismiss both of them.
• Con We all live in our own subjective realities. The human mind is not capable of being truly objective. Therefore, the entire idea of a single objective reality is purely speculative, an assumption that, while popular, is not necessary.
  • Objection Whether the human mind is capable of being truly objective or not has nothing to do with reality being objective. 
  • Objection This isn't about the necessity of believing whether or not an objective reality exists, this is about whether or not an objective reality exists.
  • Objection Humans do not live in their own subjective reality, but percieve subjectively the objective reality.
• Con Postmodernism is one of many philosophies that does not believe in any objective reality and successfully undermines the idea of objective reality.
  • Objection Postmodernism is rather absurd, either sheer nihilism or some form of relativism, disbelieving in things that are obvious facts.
    • Objection "Obvious" is subjective - though saying that doesn't take much away from the argument. In line with that, disbelief of facts in general is not particularly absurd. For example, flat-earth was assumed to be fact for an incredibly long time (still assumed to be true by some people), but was eventually disproved. There's no reason that any of our present facts won't have the same thing happen to them either.
  • Objection Postmodernism has not been proven. The argument is assuming that postmodernism is true, but does not prove that the ideas and beliefs expressed by postmodernism are factual.
• Con The fact that objective reality is a debatable concept makes objective reality subjective.
  • Objection Debating its existence does not make its existence subjective, it just means that we do not have enough evidence (and may never have the evidence) to prove that it exists. For instance, debating if the twin prime conjecture is true does not disprove it, only shows that we do not have enough information to currently prove it.

See also

• Does God exist?
• Do humans have free will?