Is there such a thing as objective reality?

[DemPGH]

To a person who strongly believes in the healing potential of fairies, illness that ends in recovery might well be the work of fairies, something this person strongly believes in, even though to the outside observer it is just a recovery.

No, and I can't help but chuckle a little. That's why there is such a thing as experimentation. If you have high blood pressure, you take a blood pressure pill and it goes down. You ask the fairies in the woods to bring it down, it doesn't go down.

As to the question at hand - no, I don't "believe" in objective reality. I accept it.

[DemPGH]

I was thinking about a little experiment that could be done.

1. Gather 15 mentally healthy people in a room.
2. Have a black medium sized dog (like a lab) walk into the room.
3. Call the dog out.
4. Ask immediately what everyone saw (or if anyone saw anything other than a black dog - a man, a woman, a fairy, an elf, a dragon, etc.).

I guarantee that everyone will have seen a black dog. Then, if there is still skepticism, repeat the experiment with, say, a woman in a red dress with raven hair. Then check immediately to see if anyone saw anything other than a distinct woman in a red dress with dark hair.

Of course this would be a colossal waste of time to prove the obvious, but nonetheless if there exists doubt concerning objective reality, or if we're bending over backwards to say that there is no such thing, then these kinds of things can prove useful to demonstrate that there is.

[DemPGH]

Al, I think you're refering to quantum properties, and there is an answer to that.

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Also, yeah, logic alone would be a limiting way to look at the world. Rather, it is one tool amongst many that scientists use.

I also managed to find this argument, which I think speaks to the big picture here. That's a little sobering to me, to be perfectly honest, and I can't emphasize enough how I think efforts to portray science as "just another narrative" are really killing "the arts." I don't actually think that that view is dominant, but there are certainly substantial pockets of it, and the quicker the idea dies, the better.

[DemPGH]

And then the blind man in the room does not perceive the same reality as the other participants in your experiment and the results are called into question, yes.

But that's because he's blind. All because he can't see it doesn't change the actual, physical reality.

Yes, yes, he's not eligible to participate because he can't see, but I rather think Mikado was pulling my leg a bit. When that black dog walked into the room, no one saw a dragon.