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consensus reality

created by The Shadow

(idea) by The Shadow (?) (print)   ?   1 C! I like it! Sat Nov 13 1999 at 9:19:42

the idea that reality is created by society's beliefs about it. in other words: the world is what the majority believes it is.

(idea) by Saige (1.2 y) (print)   ?   1 C! I like it! Sat Nov 13 1999 at 9:19:42

That presents an interesting circular reinforcement scenario. The world is what the majority believes it to be, but the majority believes that way because that's the world they see around them.

I think there's at least some truth in this. While our beliefs may not be able to change the physical (though they may), we do in fact affect society with our beliefs. The majority makes the rules, and then convinces others that's how it's supposed to be.


(idea) by tim_three (3.4 y) (print)   ?   1 C! I like it! Sat Feb 05 2000 at 0:03:51

Consensus reality is nevertheless voluntary.

Variations include

Of course, I don't personally know anoyone claiming to have successfully stopped beleiving in consensus reality.

If I attempt to fly, I'll do it sober, at ground-level, on a soft surface.
...Unless I'm snowboarding.

Companies tend to get no work done when they do management by consensus. Is there an anology here?


(idea) by Mertseger (5.3 mon) (print)   ?   I like it! Mon Jun 05 2000 at 18:03:17

Of course, all of these analyses are tinged with the latent monotheism that pervades the Western philosophical paradigm. There are, in fact, many consensus realities, and humans slip and shift between them without much effort or thought. Examples include business, family, science, faerie, sex, religion, media, cyberspace, and politics. A hypothetical non-human observer would be hard-pressed to determine in which reality a human was at any given moment based on external evidence, but it's almost immediately clear to us.

The modernist or materialist paradigm is that anything intangible does not exist, and, therefore, there is but one reality: the physical universe. Such people attempt to maintain this philosophical position despite the fact that the meaning of any word like "intangible" is ultimately itself intangible. These paradigms reached their peak in the 1980's, but having been under assault even in the physical sciences for nearly a century they have begun to wane.


printable version
chaos

The social construction of reality Rosenthal effect If a tree falls in a forest, and nobody's around, does it make a sound? If we define things as real, they are real in their consequences
Consensual Environment society A "behind the barn" sort of thing Mushroom trip #1
Modernist faerie If we define things as unreal, they may still be real in their consequences Perception shapes reality
How we know what we know true knowledge Collective subjectivism Clan Malkavian
anti-American You're so boned Timothy Leary Edmund Husserl
Egolibrium :: O T.A.Z.: Black Crown & Black Rose: Anarcho-Monarchism & Anarcho-Mysticism theme park The Sky is Falling
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