Blind men And the Elephant parable.
Once upon a time there were five blind persons. They were all friends. As it happened one day an elephant came to the town. There was a circus, and everyone went to see the elephant, and talked about the majestic animal. Hearing their stories five blind men decided, we also should go and see this elephant. They were curious to know what it is. After the circus finished, they approached the elephant and started to feel it.
One man touched the trunk he said "The elephant is like a snake"
One man touched the leg and said "The elephant is like a big pillar, round and tall"
One man felt the body and said "The elephant is like a big wall"
One man touched the ear and said "The elephant is like a fan"
One man touched the tail and said "You all are wrong; the elephant is like a broom"
And they argued all the way home about which one is true. But never agree with the other.
This story illustrates the subjective reality. The perspective of a man who is able to see can be considered as the objective reality compared to these blind men (however which is not the true meaning of objective reality). Every blind person is correct, as they were not aware of the concept of the elephant and unfortunately there is no way of explaining this to them too, as they are not able to see the big picture. Even if they touch the whole elephant that would not be the same as seeing the elephant and identifying this.
What is subjective and objective reality?
Above is just an allegory to the subjective and objective reality. Objective reality is that there is truth out there independently without any conscious awareness. Subjective reality is the world dependent on conscious awareness of it. Compare this to the perspective of the blind person, He does see the elephant, in his own way, which is correct to himself. However, which is not true as elephant is totally different to a person who can see it. Hence, we can compare this to the objective reality which exists outside the consciousness of the blind person.
Thought experiment on subjective reality of five blind men
Case 1
Imagine instead of an individual part, all the five blind men were able to touch all the parts of the elephant, and they all come up in agreement what the elephant is. And we still can see that they do not know the reality of the elephant. They are still stuck in their own imagination about the elephant. Yet, relative to them there exists an objective reality as we can see clearly still no matter how they try without eyes, they would never see the true picture of an elephant.
Case 2
Now imagine every person in this world is blind, and nobody has seen an elephant ever since the beginning of everything. In this case, subjective reality suggests, the elephant is what it is, as we all feel. There is nothing like a majestic animal that ever existed, as that is not in anyone's conscious awareness. But objective reality suggests otherwise. Objective reality suggests, even though we are not aware of it, there exists an elephant with its majestic glory, independently from all the consciousness. (facts do not cease to exist, even if you are not aware of them)
Case 3
Now let's look at five perfectly normal men. You can imagine any number. Subjective reality suggests, there is an elephant only as there is consciousness to observe this. Objective reality suggests, there is an elephant even if anyone does not see this. This has been already discussed in the quantum physics, as the cat in the box experiment. It suggests that the existence of the elephant appears, only when you start to observe this. Hence, the conclusion of the cat in the box experiment is aligning with the subjective reality.
I can give some examples to illustrate the subjective nature of the reality. However, I find it difficult to find example for objective truth.
Examples to illustrate the subjective reality.
What happens when you dream. Does the time exist when you sleep and dream? Some would suggest it does. However, if you compare, the time you went to sleep and woke up, you only existed either side of it. Not in the middle. Hence when the consciousness is sleeping, there appears nothing exists.
Everything I ever known started existing to me Only when I was born, more exactly when "I" became conscious being. Before birth, there was nothing, hence, I can say all the truths are relative to my consciousness. I know, things existed outside my consciousness, or do they? What happens If I die today? everything will cease to exist. It doesn't matter my "Soul" travels through time and be born as a different consciousness, then the things would be different truths. My parents would not be my parents anymore, my job would not be this job. Even my house would be inherited by my children, and I even would just be an intruder if I tried to revisit. Hence, whatever I am thinking is mine is just a relative subjective truth.
When I say, I do not find examples for objective truth, that is also partially true. Consider "Everything is Subjective". If that is true that would be an "Objective truth" And would be the only objective truth that I would ever find.
In science, we never discuss the subjective nature of our observations. Which I have discussed in previous articles.
What does the reality feels like to you?
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