Is the world created in our minds, or, is the world as it is presented to us?
Greek philosophy concluded that there are ideal forms which exist beyond what the world presents, and it is human talent and training which allows the great artists to manifest approximations of those forms.
Schopenhauer resolved on how those forms may be differentiated with the mechanisms of both space and of time. These two phenomena are not creations of our minds, not cognitive concepts but reality.
However, quantum mechanics has proven that matter, and that both time and space, are neither constant nor objective. Measuring anything depends on space, distance and time of both the observer and the observed, and this is where the fixed reality of Newton is superseded by relativity.
Kant refuted that matter is objective, postulating that space and time are merely figments of our imagination. We cannot take a step outside of our perceptions to know reality directly.
Is there a reality external to our perceptions of it, or not?
Kant’s position that we cannot access reality as we are trapped within our own perceptions of ‘time’ and ‘space’ vs Schopenhauer’s position that we cannot grasp the oneness of objective reality, both reverberate to the Greek position, that there is a reality which we cannot directly access.
I take an evolutionary position which is based on how perception evolves in various species. Every species on this planet has various and usually over-lapping perceptions of this global environment. That we can teach dolphins tricks and create bananas indicates reality is objective and immediately accessible.
The psychological interpretation we give to reality depends upon the cultural values we are taught and how we internalise or reject those values. Here we have a nature vs. nurture argument. For example, the dichotomy of Western thought has no comparison in Indigenous perceptions. Being surrounded by these worldviews and immersed in the language of those values predisposes one’s psychology to that way of thinking.
The disconnection of perception from reality is a Western phenomenon. It is a philosophical position, a particular worldview, which is not necessarily correct or better, and which has both wonderful and horrific consequences.
With our thoughts, we create the world, yet we function as intrinsic components of that world. The insight of quantum mechanics, that the observer changes the observed, is not a statement of separateness but rather a statement of entanglement.
We directly percieve reality through our cultural and personal values. As our minds open and values change, we experience different aspects of reality which is always present and always changing. All life on Earth has evolved to interact directly with reality and each species is limited in its perceptions of reality according to its abilities.
Abilities may evolve with effort and with careful selection.
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