What is Real?
Building Pyramids - Ch.6
What is Real?
There are three types of realities:
Objective
Subjective
Inter-Subjective
Objective Reality
“exists independently of human consciousness and human beliefs” (Sapiens, 131).
Think of things like gravity, thermodynamics, photosynthesis. A lot of scientific experimentation is about finding objective realities.
If it stops existing when I stop thinking about it, it’s not objective reality. BUT, it might be subjective reality.
Subjective Reality
“exists depending on the consciousness and beliefs of a single individual” (Sapiens, 131).
These are your imaginary friends. These are your own interpretations.
Here’s where things get interesting…
Inter-subjective Reality
These are subjective realities based on a whole network of people’s belief, instead of just an individual. If one person stops believing, the inter-subjective still exists. If everyone stops believing suddenly, the inter-subjective dies.
The inter-subjective is not more or less real than objective reality, it exists differently. Its impact on the world is just as significant. Most of human history has been driven by inter-subjective realities: law, money, gods, nations.
The inter-subjective reality is not to be taken lightly. It determines the imagined order of the world. Who’s in charge? What rules do we follow? What are human rights? What’s a good man?
It’s easy to dismiss the inter-subjective realities as “not real.” Some people love marching at protests complaining about the fakeness of money. Other people denounce gods and argue they can’t be real. Maybe they’re right, but it’s hard to think of anything that’s impacted the last few thousand years of human history more than money and gods.
Even today, people risk their lives for money and for the gods.
If that’s not real, then what is?
Question of The Day
What makes something real? You can touch it? See it? Feel it? Something else?
Your Biggest Fan,
Noah “BigNerd” Sochaczevski
PS. Harari rewrote the American Constitution using biological terms on page 135 and it’s awesome.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men evolved differently, that they are born with certain mutable characteristics, and that among these are life and the puruit of pleasure”
If you’re interested in reading more about that, head to Chapter 6!