Various criteria for distinguishing real from unreal entities have been proposed, including causal powers, mind-independence, and being non-illusory. It is often contrasted with appearance, opposing what is with what seems to be, although the accuracy and fundamentality of this contrast are disputed.
Epistemology, another philosophical subdiscipline, explores how people can know reality. They examine what it means for something to be real, how entities are divided into different categories of being, and which entities exist at the most fundamental level. Accordingly, worldviews address not only theoretical matters but also practical and evaluative outlooks about what matters and how one should act.
Monism and pluralism are families of views about the roles of unity and multiplicity in the structure of reality. According to this view, even a complete understanding of physics would not render sciences dedicated to higher levels, such as psychology, obsolete. Non-reductive physicalists hold that everything is ultimately physical while insisting that higher-level psychological facts cannot be reduced to fundamental physics. In this sense, there can be matter without biological life, whereas life is built upon matter and depends on it. Lower levels, by contrast, operate according to more basic mechanisms and are prior to the higher ones.
Another structural feature concerns the idea that some entities depend on, or are grounded in, other entities. Mereological universalism holds that any collection of entities constitutes a whole, even if the entities are otherwise unrelated. Various theories of the mereological principles underlying composition have been proposed. Various categories of being or constituents of reality are discussed in the academic discourse.
Levels of reality
Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) rejected the possibility of objective knowledge of the things in themselves, arguing instead that all experience is shaped by the innate structures of human cognition. Plato (c. 427 – c. 347 BCE) argued for the existence of a realm of eternal forms or ideas in addition to the material world of mutable entities. Skepticism about metaphysics holds that it is not possible to know the fundamental nature of reality, such as claims about categories of being or the existence of universals.
- In the broadest sense, being is the most general category that applies to everything and contrasts only with nothingness.
- Anti-realists hold that there are no abstract objects and offer alternative explanations.
- Computer scientists discuss how systems of knowledge representation can organize information about reality and make it accessible to computational processes.
- Anti-realism about abstract objects in mathematics takes various forms, including, but not limited to, fictionalism.
- Scientific realism is the view that the best scientific theories provide an accurate description of a mind-independent world.
- According to subjectivism, values depend on the attitudes and preferences of individuals.
Related concepts
It holds that the scientific view of the world is either exactly or at least approximately true by presenting reality as it is. For example, emotivism holds that value statements express emotional attitudes of subjective approval or disapproval rather than objective facts. Anti-realist views reject the mind-independent existence of values and can take various forms. Realists hold that values are objective features of reality, meaning that there are mind-independent facts about whether something is good or bad, irrespective of subjective beliefs or personal preferences.
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- It holds that this practice can be useful in some contexts without ascribing substantive or framework-independent reality to such entities.
- It holds that the debate is not based on a substantive disagreement but arises instead from conceptual confusions.
- It is often contrasted with appearance, opposing what is with what seems to be, although the accuracy and fundamentality of this contrast are disputed.
- Philosophers discuss various sources of knowledge as ways of how this cognitive contact is established, including perception, introspection, reason, memory, and testimony.
- Another influential proposal treats mind-independence as a criterion of reality, arguing that real entities do not depend on how people think about them.
- Realists hold that values are objective features of reality, meaning that there are mind-independent facts about whether something is good or bad, irrespective of subjective beliefs or personal preferences.
- It is often contrasted with essence, which denotes the nature or characteristic features of an entity.
While some skeptical scenarios use the idea of a simulated reality to challenge the reliability of human cognition, contemporary technologies such as augmented reality and virtual reality can also inform experience. Although it is not a widely accepted position, various thought experiments undermining the reliability of human cognitive faculties are discussed in the academic literature. Moral skepticism is the view that there is no moral knowledge, for instance, that one cannot know whether a given behavior is morally right or wrong. Some forms target specific domains of knowledge, such as religious skepticism, which denies that beliefs about God or other religious doctrines amount to knowledge. Philosophers examine various limitations of knowledge or obstacles to the cognitive contact with reality. Philosophers discuss various sources of knowledge as ways of how this cognitive contact is established, including perception, introspection, reason, memory, and testimony.
It comprises beliefs, ideas, and attitudes that form a background against which people interpret experiences, make decisions, and navigate life. E. Moore (1873–1958) drew on common sense and empirical science to oppose idealism, emphasizing that the world exists independently of the mind. By contrast, Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) criticized German idealism and held that a blind, irrational will is the underlying principle of reality.
Computer scientists discuss how systems of knowledge representation can organize information about reality and make it accessible to computational processes. Reality testing is another suggested psychological function in which individuals distinguish intrapsychic from external events to assess how their experience aligns with mister golden reality. It overlaps with the cognitive sciences, which investigate how cognitive processes transform information about the world, and with neuroscience, which studies the brain activities underlying such processes. It concerns the question of how mental and linguistic entities, such as thoughts and words, can establish contact with reality by successfully referring to things in the world. It focuses on how individuals experience reality and how conscious states are intentional or directed towards entities other than themselves.
Related concepts
More general constraints arise from limits of human cognitive faculties rather than situation-specific circumstances, such as facts too complex for anyone to conceive. Testimony is a transmission of knowledge from one person to another through communication.k Memory is the capacity to store information from other sources and make it available to cognitive processes when needed. Reason is the ability to draw logical inferences and arrive at truths independent of immediate sensory input. Anti-realism is understood as a view that identifies the meaning of a statement with the evidence that would support it or the conditions under which a person is justified in asserting it.
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