With today’s post, I hope to explain the subjective world we live in. Being a rather abstract concept, and a debatable one for that matter, I encourage you to email or comment below on any questions or concerns you may have on my explanation. I certainly do not believe my explanation is anything objectively true, so please disagree with me in anything you find troubling.
To begin, I want you to take your eyes off the paper and find something to hold. Whatever that thing is, please get up, if you must, and grab it. What does it look like? Can you describe it? Can you feel it? Go ahead… feel it. Tell yourself what it feels like. Convince yourself that it feels like that. Now identify its colors. Is there any red on it? What about blue? Do you see the slightest bit of blue on this object? And don’t forget to name it. Give that item a name if it does not already have one. I’m not saying you must name it like your pet, but instead identify it. If you are holding a rectangular-shaped device that can allow you to text, call and download millions of different apps at your control, name it a smartphone. Or if you are holding a soft fabric with four holes, with the largest one at the bottom, name it a shirt.
Now that you know what you are holding, now that you are certain, I want you to be uncertain. Change the item, not in the physical world, but in the mental one. Bend the reality that you perceive until you begin to feel roughness on the edges of the object. Wait until the colors you see change into the ones you once did not. Then rename it. Call the cellphone a fork, and the shirt a racket.
The question you are probably asking yourself right now is what the hell I am talking about. You can look at an apple all day, but it’s only changing colors once the outer layer begins to rot away. And in a sense, I totally agree. Unless we alter the physical world, or it alters itself, it will never physically change. But my question to you is whether the physical world is the only way to perceive something? Are we limited to the objective physical world, or is there a way for us to subjectively perceive things from a different light? And honestly, I truly believe the answer is ‘yes, of course’.
Subjectivity is something influenced by feelings, tastes, and opinions. When defined this way, I feel that is clear that our world is subjective because everything, and I mean everything, is influenced by our feelings, tastes, and opinions. To demonstrate this, I want you to hold that same object in your hand again. As you feel it, you cannot know for sure whether it is you raising the object or if it is instead levitating up as your hand moves up. One could argue that you “feel” the object, but the same situation occurs. Do you feel the item in your hands, or does a sensation rush into your hands as you think you are holding the object?
** Here’s a more concrete example: everything is subjective because there is a constant filter that we take the world in from. As in with every sense you have, there is a filter from that thing you are experiencing and whatever you define as yourself experiencing it. In between you and the thing you experience is the lens that transfers this information. And that lens, of course, is biased and subject to the emotions and expectations that you have of yourself and the world around you. Therefore, nothing is a direct intake without some type of internal influence when interpreting. **
Any one of our senses could be rearranged in this manner, which inconveniences us to not know which reality is true. Therefore, is it that we feel the physical world, or do we have common sensations that we associate with our interactions with the physical world? And honestly, there is no way to be totally sure of the first option, which leaves us with the latter. We are left to believe in a subjective world simply by the process of elimination.
The issue with this philosophy is that it is impossible to think that the physical world does not exist. Sure, everything is subjective, but to believe nothing is objective and to believe the physical world is only a construct is simply incomprehensible for the human brain.
Another issue is that this mindset does not factor in probability. We cannot be a hundred percent sure that there is an objective world, yet the likelihood that there is one is very high. What I mean to point out is that if there is no base point, which we call the objective world, then there exists a massive coincidence that we all can agree on basically everything we experience. In other words, for no objective world to exist would require every conscious mind, or at least the clear majority, to agree that their unique, separate perceptions of reality are the same. Therefore, I believe the most likely situation is that we all live within an objective world, yet we all perceive it through our own unique subjective lens which alters how we experience the objective world ever so slightly.
As outlandish and confusing as this idea may sound, I guarantee you have thought this very thing before and did not even know it. For example, have you ever thought or been told that your red could be my blue? The idea is simple: one cannot describe the color blue without using examples of blue things or mixing other colors to make the color blue. Both forms of explanation require a common understanding of what blue is, which is why the statement, “your red could be my blue”, cannot be disproved. That statement is exposing our understanding that the subjective world we live in is only seen as objective when everyone agrees. Yet since I am only in my head, I must assume that we are all agreeing on the same color red.
Other examples, like my second could be your minute, my rough could be your smooth, or my angry could be your calm, all cannot be disproven for the same reason. Broadly speaking, that reason is that we assume our experiences are all agreeing yet have no way of proving it.
Now with our subjective world defined, I ask that you go back to the object you were, or are, holding. Grab it one last time and look at it again. The physical world demands that it be the colors that it is now, but your subjective lens can say otherwise. You cannot change the physical world, but you can change how you preserve it. I am not saying you can do that this second (well, unless you quickly take a psychedelic), but what I am saying is that it is certainly possible. And with this possibility in mind, our subjective lens can certainly become a bit more interesting and possibly make the world seem a bit brighter.