How subjective is reality: Can two people experience something the same way and is it possible to really know?

Answer 1

Life is experienced through the cultural lens of the perceiver. It is colored by our assents - those things we think are right because the have always been so. St. Thomas Aquinas believed, “Things known are in the knower according to the mode of the knower” (Hick 43). There is no awareness of anything except within the context of one’s experience, acculturation and training. An infant, for example, may experience or perceive events, but has no frame of reference for them and merely soaks up impressions, which may later help form character or personality. Yet, the personality itself does not really begin to manifest until the infant becomes interactive with its environment – secular, spiritual, human, divine. Until then the incipient person is a fledgling to whom we assign personality traits according to our experience.
Sufi Al-Junard echoed Aquinas when he taught, “The colour of the water is that of its container” (43). Al-Junard is more poetic in his explanation of critical realism; his comment is much simpler and more easily understandable as well. Water, taken by itself, is formless and colorless until acted upon by some external factor. Even a raindrop does not achieve its final form until the effects of wind and gravity act upon it. Once it hits the ground, the raindrop is transformed again: it becomes part of a puddle, a lake or a stream or it evaporates into the air. It may take on the color of the streambed; someone may place it into a bright red glass and it will take on a ruby hue; it may land on a salt flat and take on the flavor of the minerals dissolved in it. Similarly, our experiences are seen and interpreted within our culture, background and belief system. We too, may absorb the texture and taste of our society.
All animals perceive the rising of the sun and the changing of the seasons. Whether one interprets these events as Apollo driving a chariot across the sky, the perfect order of a divinely created plan, a mystery, a miracle, or a complex mathematical equation is a direct result of one’s acculturation. An early Egyptian may consider the annual flooding of the Nile to stem from the beneficence of a god. A young child may consider the rising of the sun to be magical. A scientist will look at both events and see in them order and chaos subject to natural forces, but governed by universal laws. A western Christian will, if reasonably educated, see the workings of nature, but may also believe these happenings are ordained by deity according to a divine plan. All have experienced the same events. Their interpretation and understanding are colored by their “containers” as the captured water is colored by its surroundings. Each explanation is equally valid to the reporter in the context of his place and time. While we may argue that the scientific explanation is more valid, we are doing so through our own cultural lenses and are judging the reporter according to our own belief system and biases.

even people from very similar backgrounds will perceive things differently, ever witness children playing telephone? I do not believe two individuals can ever experience a common even in exactly the same way. The simplest test is to ask then to describe what they saw/felt.

Answer 2

It is impossible to experience something the same way as someone else for one simple reason: humans don't experience "reality," we experience our interpretation of reality.

Celebrated Linguists and Psychoanalists such as Ferdinand Saussure, Jacques Lacan, Jacques Derrida, and Sigmund Freud have demonstrated that because we are self aware we are unable to directly experience reality. Basically, all the information that comes to us through the senses (words, images, smells, touch, etc...) is interpreted according to our personal understanding, beliefs, upbringing, and so forth. Only after this entire process do we experience anything. What this means, in layman's terms, is that people only experience interpretations of reality, not reality itself.

This is the reason that ten people will witness one accident, and give ten slightly different versions of what happened.

Here is an example: When one person says the word "rain", they might picture in their mind a heavy rain falling in the tropics of the Phillipines. When someone else hears them say rain they might picture a light sprinkle in the desert of the southwestern United States. Thus, both of them undersand the concept of water falling from the sky, but the context and interpretation are completely different. Even standing in a rain storm each of them are comparing the current rain to previous experiences with rain.

Reality is HIGHLY subjective. No two people in the world experience anything in the same way.

This is the simultaneous curse and blessing of humanity.
We love eachother. We never fully understand eachother.

Answer 3

Perception is subjective through the lens of quality (see Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance).

Reality is. 2+2=4. That is reality.

Answer 4

in case you don't like the way some thing is in this international then do some thing about it. you've this variety of vast volume of questions yet you aren't any more searching techniques through answering them your self. you anticipate human beings to be empathetic to reassure your self of your viewpoints. convinced a lot of issues are very f'd up in this international, mutually with governments and religions, yet do not keep attempting to %. fights on the information superhighway in basic terms to make your self experience extra suitable. pass out and be the change that you want to work out! you're an psychological midget which will under no circumstances strengthen otherwise!

Answer 5

All experience is subjective, don't you think? If you want to know how someone else sees or experiences something, ask. It's one of the things that make for an interesting life.

Answer 6

Quantrill, we humans can come to a consensus on a lot of things. It's necessary. Like Einstein indicated however, reality is different to different people. It's based on your relativity to the incident. We just have to keep trying. That's the human struggle. The answer is yes and no.

Answer 7

Mr. Q, any law enforcement officer can tell you that reality is indeed subjective. Gathering evidence via eye witness interviews will yield different interpretations and perspectives on any given incident.

Answer 8

Everything is different from the perceptions of each individual. Everybody's mind is different, their ability to sense the experience differs, and their understanding of it differs as well. I'd say it's likely that no two people can experience something the same way... not really.

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Answer 9

Nope. Maybe when I look at a fire hydrant you see an obese poodle. You just never know.

Answer 10

This is more of a philosophy question than a religion one.