Reality

Reality is the sum or aggregate of all that is real or existent within a system, as
opposed to that which is only imaginary, nonexistent or nonactual. The term is also
used to refer to the ontological status of things, indicating their existence.[1] In
physical terms, reality is the totality of a system, known and unknown.[2]

Philosophical questions about the nature of reality or existence or being are

considered under the rubric of ontology, which is a major branch of metaphysics in
the Western philosophical tradition. Ontological questions also feature in diverse
branches of philosophy, including the philosophy of science, of religion, of
mathematics, and philosophical logic. These include questions about whether only
physical objects are real (i.e., physicalism), whether reality is fundamentally
immaterial (e.g. idealism), whether hypothetical unobservable entities posited by
scientific theories exist, whether a 'God' exists, whether numbers and other abstract
objects exist, and whether possible worlds exist. Epistemology is concerned with
what can be known or inferred as likely and how, whereby in the modern world
emphasis is put on reason, empirical evidence and science as sources and methods
to determine or investigate reality.

World views

World views and theories

A common colloquial usage would have reality mean "perceptions, beliefs, and
attitudes toward reality", as in "My reality is not your reality." This is often used just
as a colloquialism indicating that the parties to a conversation agree, or should
agree, not to quibble over deeply different conceptions of what is real. For example,
in a religious discussion between friends, one might say (attempting humor), "You
might disagree, but in my reality, everyone goes to heaven."

Reality can be defined in a way that links it to worldviews or parts of them

(conceptual frameworks): Reality is the totality of all things, structures (actual and
conceptual), events (past and present) and phenomena, whether observable or not.
It is what a world view (whether it be based on individual or shared human
experience) ultimately attempts to describe or map.

A worldview or world-view or Weltanschauung is the fundamental cognitive

orientation of an individual or society encompassing the whole of the individual's or
society's knowledge, culture, and point of view.[3] A worldview can include natural
:
philosophy; fundamental, existential, and normative postulates; or themes, values,
emotions, and ethics.[4]

Certain ideas from physics, philosophy, sociology, literary criticism, and other fields
shape various theories of reality. One such theory is that there simply and literally is
no reality beyond the perceptions or beliefs we each have about reality. Such
attitudes are summarized in the popular statement, "Perception is reality" or "Life is
how you perceive reality" or "reality is what you can get away with" (Robert Anton
Wilson), and they indicate anti-realism – that is, the view that there is no objective
reality, whether acknowledged explicitly or not.

Many of the concepts of science and philosophy are often defined culturally and
socially. This idea was elaborated by Thomas Kuhn in his book The Structure of
Scientific Revolutions (1962). The Social Construction of Reality, a book about the
sociology of knowledge written by Peter L. Berger and Thomas Luckmann, was
published in 1966. It explained how knowledge is acquired and used for the
comprehension of reality. Out of all the realities, the reality of everyday life is the
most important one since our consciousness requires us to be completely aware and
attentive to the experience of everyday life.

Related concepts

A priori and a posteriori

A priori ("from the earlier") and a posteriori ("from the later") are Latin phrases
used in philosophy to distinguish types of knowledge, justification, or argument by
their reliance on empirical evidence or experience. A priori knowledge is
independent from current experience (e.g., as part of a new study). Examples
include mathematics,[5] tautologies, and deduction from pure reason.[6] A
posteriori knowledge depends on empirical evidence. Examples include most fields
of science and aspects of personal knowledge.

Potentiality and actuality

In philosophy, potentiality and actuality[7] are a pair of closely connected principles

which Aristotle used to analyze motion, causality, ethics, and physiology in his
Physics, Metaphysics, Nicomachean Ethics, and De Anima.[8]

The concept of potentiality, in this context, generally refers to any "possibility" that a
thing can be said to have. Aristotle did not consider all possibilities the same, and
emphasized the importance of those that become real of their own accord when
conditions are right and nothing stops them.[9]

Actuality, in contrast to potentiality, is the motion, change or activity that represents

:
an exercise or fulfillment of a possibility, when a possibility becomes real in the
fullest sense.[10]

Belief

A belief is a subjective attitude that something or proposition is true.[11] In

epistemology, philosophers use the term "belief" to refer to attitudes about the world
which can be either true or false.[12] To believe something is to take it to be true; for
instance, to believe that snow is white is comparable to accepting the truth of the
proposition "snow is white". However, holding a belief does not require active
introspection. For example, few carefully consider whether or not the sun will rise
tomorrow, simply assuming that it will. Moreover, beliefs need not be occurrent
(e.g. a person actively thinking "snow is white"), but can instead be dispositional
(e.g. a person who if asked about the color of snow would assert "snow is white").[12]

There are various ways that contemporary philosophers have tried to describe
beliefs, including as representations of ways that the world could be (Jerry Fodor),
as dispositions to act as if certain things are true (Roderick Chisholm), as
interpretive schemes for making sense of someone's actions (Daniel Dennett and
Donald Davidson), or as mental states that fill a particular function (Hilary
Putnam).[12] Some have also attempted to offer significant revisions to our notion of
belief, including eliminativists about belief who argue that there is no phenomenon
in the natural world which corresponds to our folk psychological concept of belief
(Paul Churchland) and formal epistemologists who aim to replace our bivalent
notion of belief ("either we have a belief or we don't have a belief") with the more
permissive, probabilistic notion of credence ("there is an entire spectrum of degrees
of belief, not a simple dichotomy between belief and non-belief").[12][13]

Beliefs are the subject of various important philosophical debates. Notable examples
include: "What is the rational way to revise one's beliefs when presented with
various sorts of evidence?", "Is the content of our beliefs entirely determined by our
mental states, or do the relevant facts have any bearing on our beliefs (e.g. if I
believe that I'm holding a glass of water, is the non-mental fact that water is H2O
part of the content of that belief)?", "How fine-grained or coarse-grained are our
beliefs?", and "Must it be possible for a belief to be expressible in language, or are
there non-linguistic beliefs?".[12]

Belief studies
:
There is research investigating specific beliefs,
types of beliefs and patterns of beliefs. For
example, a study estimated contemporary
prevalence and associations with belief in
witchcraft around the world, which (in its data)
varied between 9% and 90% between nations and
is still a widespread element in worldviews
globally. It also shows associations such as with
lower "innovative activity", higher levels of
anxiety, lower life expectancy, and higher
religiosity.[15][14] Other research is investigating Socio-demographic
beliefs in misinformation and their resistance to correlates of witchcraft
correction, including with respect to beliefs[14]
misinformation countermeasures. It describes
cognitive, social and affective processes that leave
people vulnerable to the formation of false beliefs.[16] A study introduced the
concept of false social reality which refers to widespread perceptions of public
opinion that are shown to be false, such as underestimated general public support in
the U.S. for climate change mitigation policies.[17][18] Studies also suggested some
uses of psychedelics can shift beliefs in some humans in certain ways, such as
increasing attribution of consciousness to various entities (including plants and
inanimate objects) and towards panpsychism and fatalism.[19][20]

Western philosophy
Philosophy addresses two different aspects of the topic of reality: the nature of
reality itself, and the relationship between the mind (as well as language and
culture) and reality.

On the one hand, ontology is the study of being, and the central topic of the field is
couched, variously, in terms of being, existence, "what is", and reality. The task in
ontology is to describe the most general categories of reality and how they are
interrelated. If a philosopher wanted to proffer a positive definition of the concept
"reality", it would be done under this heading. As explained above, some
philosophers draw a distinction between reality and existence. In fact, many analytic
philosophers today tend to avoid the term "real" and "reality" in discussing
ontological issues. But for those who would treat "is real" the same way they treat
"exists", one of the leading questions of analytic philosophy has been whether
:
existence (or reality) is a property of objects. It has been widely held by analytic
philosophers that it is not a property at all, though this view has lost some ground in
recent decades.

On the other hand, particularly in discussions of objectivity that have feet in both
metaphysics and epistemology, philosophical discussions of "reality" often concern
the ways in which reality is, or is not, in some way dependent upon (or, to use
fashionable jargon, "constructed" out of) mental and cultural factors such as
perceptions, beliefs, and other mental states, as well as cultural artifacts, such as
religions and political movements, on up to the vague notion of a common cultural
world view, or Weltanschauung.

Realism

The view that there is a reality independent of any beliefs, perceptions, etc., is called
realism. More specifically, philosophers are given to speaking about "realism about"
this and that, such as realism about universals or realism about the external world.
Generally, where one can identify any class of object, the existence or essential
characteristics of which is said not to depend on perceptions, beliefs, language, or
any other human artifact, one can speak of "realism about" that object.

A correspondence theory of knowledge about what exists claims that "true"

knowledge of reality represents accurate correspondence of statements about and
images of reality with the actual reality that the statements or images are attempting
to represent. For example, the scientific method can verify that a statement is true
based on the observable evidence that a thing exists. Many humans can point to the
Rocky Mountains and say that this mountain range exists, and continues to exist
even if no one is observing it or making statements about it.

Anti-realism

One can also speak of anti-realism about the same objects. Anti-realism is the latest
in a long series of terms for views opposed to realism. Perhaps the first was idealism,
so called because reality was said to be in the mind, or a product of our ideas.
Berkeleyan idealism is the view, propounded by the Irish empiricist George
Berkeley, that the objects of perception are actually ideas in the mind. In this view,
one might be tempted to say that reality is a "mental construct"; this is not quite
accurate, however, since, in Berkeley's view, perceptual ideas are created and
coordinated by God. By the 20th century, views similar to Berkeley's were called
phenomenalism. Phenomenalism differs from Berkeleyan idealism primarily in that
Berkeley believed that minds, or souls, are not merely ideas nor made up of ideas,
whereas varieties of phenomenalism, such as that advocated by Russell, tended to go
farther to say that the mind itself is merely a collection of perceptions, memories,
etc., and that there is no mind or soul over and above such mental events. Finally,
:
anti-realism became a fashionable term for any view which held that the existence
of some object depends upon the mind or cultural artifacts. The view that the so-
called external world is really merely a social, or cultural, artifact, called social
constructionism, is one variety of anti-realism. Cultural relativism is the view that
social issues such as morality are not absolute, but at least partially cultural artifact.

Being

The nature of being is a perennial topic in metaphysics. For, instance Parmenides

taught that reality was a single unchanging Being, whereas Heraclitus wrote that all
things flow. The 20th-century philosopher Heidegger thought previous philosophers
have lost sight the question of Being (qua Being) in favour of the questions of beings
(existing things), so that a return to the Parmenidean approach was needed. An
ontological catalogue is an attempt to list the fundamental constituents of reality.
The question of whether or not existence is a predicate has been discussed since the
Early Modern period, not least in relation to the ontological argument for the
existence of God. Existence, that something is, has been contrasted with essence, the
question of what something is. Since existence without essence seems blank, it
associated with nothingness by philosophers such as Hegel. Nihilism represents an
extremely negative view of being, the absolute a positive one.

Explanations for the existence of something rather than nothing

"Why is there anything at all?" (or "why is there something rather than nothing?") is
a question about the reason for basic existence which has been raised or commented
on by a range of philosophers and physicists, including Gottfried Wilhelm
Leibniz,[21] Ludwig Wittgenstein,[22] and Martin Heidegger, the last of whom
called it "the fundamental question of metaphysics".[23][24][25]

The question is posed totally and comprehensively rather than concerning reasoning
for the existence of anything specific, such as the universe or multiverse, the Big
Bang, God, mathematical and physical laws, time or consciousness. It can be seen as
an open metaphysical question, rather than a search for an exact
answer.[26][27][28][29]

Perception

The question of direct or "naïve" realism, as opposed to indirect or

"representational" realism, arises in the philosophy of perception and of mind out of
the debate over the nature of conscious experience;[30][31] the epistemological
question of whether the world we see around us is the real world itself or merely an
internal perceptual copy of that world generated by neural processes in our brain.
Naïve realism is known as direct realism when developed to counter indirect or
:
representative realism, also known as epistemological dualism,[32] the
philosophical position that our conscious experience is not of the real world itself
but of an internal representation, a miniature virtual-reality replica of the world.

Timothy Leary coined the influential term Reality Tunnel, by which he means a kind
of representative realism. The theory states that, with a subconscious set of mental
filters formed from their beliefs and experiences, every individual interprets the
same world differently, hence "Truth is in the eye of the beholder". His ideas
influenced the work of his friend Robert Anton Wilson.

Abstract objects and mathematics

The status of abstract entities, particularly numbers, is a topic of discussion in

mathematics.

In the philosophy of mathematics, the best known form of realism about numbers is
Platonic realism, which grants them abstract, immaterial existence. Other forms of
realism identify mathematics with the concrete physical universe.

Anti-realist stances include formalism and fictionalism.

Some approaches are selectively realistic about some mathematical objects but not
others. Finitism rejects infinite quantities. Ultra-finitism accepts finite quantities up
to a certain amount. Constructivism and intuitionism are realistic about objects that
can be explicitly constructed, but reject the use of the principle of the excluded
middle to prove existence by reductio ad absurdum.

The traditional debate has focused on whether an abstract (immaterial, intelligible)

realm of numbers has existed in addition to the physical (sensible, concrete) world.
A recent development is the mathematical universe hypothesis, the theory that only
a mathematical world exists, with the finite, physical world being an illusion within
it.

An extreme form of realism about mathematics is the mathematical multiverse

hypothesis advanced by Max Tegmark. Tegmark's sole postulate is: All structures
that exist mathematically also exist physically. That is, in the sense that "in those
[worlds] complex enough to contain self-aware substructures [they] will subjectively
perceive themselves as existing in a physically 'real' world".[33][34] The hypothesis
suggests that worlds corresponding to different sets of initial conditions, physical
constants, or altogether different equations should be considered real. The theory
can be considered a form of Platonism in that it posits the existence of mathematical
entities, but can also be considered a mathematical monism in that it denies that
anything exists except mathematical objects.
:
Properties

The problem of universals is an ancient problem in metaphysics about whether

universals exist. Universals are general or abstract qualities, characteristics,
properties, kinds or relations, such as being male/female, solid/liquid/gas or a
certain colour,[35] that can be predicated of individuals or particulars or that
individuals or particulars can be regarded as sharing or participating in. For
example, Scott, Pat, and Chris have in common the universal quality of being human
or humanity.

The realist school claims that universals are real – they exist and are distinct from
the particulars that instantiate them. There are various forms of realism. Two major
forms are Platonic realism and Aristotelian realism.[36] Platonic realism is the view
that universals are real entities and they exist independent of particulars.
Aristotelian realism, on the other hand, is the view that universals are real entities,
but their existence is dependent on the particulars that exemplify them.

Nominalism and conceptualism are the main forms of anti-realism about universals.

Time and space

A traditional realist position in ontology is that time and space have existence apart
from the human mind. Idealists deny or doubt the existence of objects independent
of the mind. Some anti-realists whose ontological position is that objects outside the
mind do exist, nevertheless doubt the independent existence of time and space.

Kant, in the Critique of Pure Reason, described time as an a priori notion that,
together with other a priori notions such as space, allows us to comprehend sense
experience. Kant denies that either space or time are substance, entities in
themselves, or learned by experience; he holds rather that both are elements of a
systematic framework we use to structure our experience. Spatial measurements are
used to quantify how far apart objects are, and temporal measurements are used to
quantitatively compare the interval between (or duration of) events. Although space
and time are held to be transcendentally ideal in this sense, they are also
empirically real, i.e. not mere illusions.

Idealist writers such as J. M. E. McTaggart in The Unreality of Time have argued

that time is an illusion.

As well as differing about the reality of time as a whole, metaphysical theories of

time can differ in their ascriptions of reality to the past, present and future
separately.

Presentism holds that the past and future are unreal, and only an ever-changing
present is real.
:
 The block universe theory, also known as Eternalism, holds that past, present
and future are all real, but the passage of time is an illusion. It is often said to
have a scientific basis in relativity.
The growing block universe theory holds that past and present are real, but the
future is not.

Time, and the related concepts of process and evolution are central to the system-
building metaphysics of A. N. Whitehead and Charles Hartshorne.

Possible worlds

The term "possible world" goes back to Leibniz's theory of possible worlds, used to
analyse necessity, possibility, and similar modal notions. Modal realism is the view,
notably propounded by David Kellogg Lewis, that all possible worlds are as real as
the actual world. In short: the actual world is regarded as merely one among an
infinite set of logically possible worlds, some "nearer" to the actual world and some
more remote. Other theorists may use the Possible World framework to express and
explore problems without committing to it ontologically. Possible world theory is
related to alethic logic: a proposition is necessary if it is true in all possible worlds,
and possible if it is true in at least one. The many worlds interpretation of quantum
mechanics is a similar idea in science.

Theories of everything (TOE) and philosophy

The philosophical implications of a physical TOE are frequently debated. For

example, if philosophical physicalism is true, a physical TOE will coincide with a
philosophical theory of everything.

The "system building" style of metaphysics attempts to answer all the important
questions in a coherent way, providing a complete picture of the world. Plato and
Aristotle could be said to be early examples of comprehensive systems. In the early
modern period (17th and 18th centuries), the system-building scope of philosophy is
often linked to the rationalist method of philosophy, that is the technique of
deducing the nature of the world by pure a priori reason. Examples from the early
modern period include the Leibniz's Monadology, Descartes's Dualism, Spinoza's
Monism. Hegel's Absolute idealism and Whitehead's Process philosophy were later
systems.

Other philosophers do not believe its techniques can aim so high. Some scientists
think a more mathematical approach than philosophy is needed for a TOE, for
instance Stephen Hawking wrote in A Brief History of Time that even if we had a
TOE, it would necessarily be a set of equations. He wrote, "What is it that breathes
fire into the equations and makes a universe for them to describe?"[37]
:
Phenomenology

On a much broader and more subjective level, private experiences, curiosity,

inquiry, and the selectivity involved in personal interpretation of events shapes
reality as seen by one and only one person[38] and hence is called
phenomenological. While this form of reality might be common to others as well, it
could at times also be so unique to oneself as to never be experienced or agreed
upon by anyone else. Much of the kind of experience deemed spiritual occurs on this
level of reality.

Phenomenology is a philosophical method developed in the early years of the

twentieth century by Edmund Husserl and a circle of followers at the universities of
Göttingen and Munich in Germany. Subsequently, phenomenological themes were
taken up by philosophers in France, the United States, and elsewhere, often in
contexts far removed from Husserl's work.

The word phenomenology comes from the Greek phainómenon, meaning "that
which appears", and lógos, meaning "study". In Husserl's conception,
phenomenology is primarily concerned with making the structures of consciousness,
and the phenomena which appear in acts of consciousness, objects of systematic
reflection and analysis. Such reflection was to take place from a highly modified
"first person" viewpoint, studying phenomena not as they appear to "my"
consciousness, but to any consciousness whatsoever. Husserl believed that
phenomenology could thus provide a firm basis for all human knowledge, including
scientific knowledge, and could establish philosophy as a "rigorous science".[39]

Husserl's conception of phenomenology has also been criticised and developed by

his student and assistant Martin Heidegger, by existentialists like Maurice Merleau-
Ponty and Jean-Paul Sartre, and by other philosophers, such as Paul Ricoeur,
Emmanuel Levinas, and Dietrich von Hildebrand.[40]

Skeptical hypotheses

Skeptical hypotheses in philosophy suggest that reality could be very different from
what we think it is; or at least that we cannot prove it is not. Examples include:

The "Brain in a vat" hypothesis is cast in scientific terms. It supposes that one
might be a disembodied brain kept alive in a vat, and fed false sensory signals.
This hypothesis is related to the Matrix hypothesis below.
The "Dream argument" of Descartes and Zhuangzi supposes reality to be
indistinguishable from a dream.
Descartes' Evil demon is a being "as clever and deceitful as he is powerful, who
has directed his entire effort to misleading me."
:
 The five minute hypothesis (or
omphalos hypothesis or Last
Thursdayism) suggests that the world
was created recently together with
records and traces indicating a greater
age.
Diminished reality refers to artificially
diminished reality, not due to
limitations of sensory systems but via
artificial filters[41]
The Matrix hypothesis or Simulated
reality hypothesis suggest that we A brain in a vat that believes it is
might be inside a computer simulation walking
or virtual reality. Related hypotheses
may also involve simulations with
signals that allow the inhabitant species in virtual or simulated reality to perceive
the external reality.

Non-western ancient philosophy and religion

Jain philosophy

Jain philosophy postulates that seven tattva (truths or fundamental principles)

constitute reality.[42] These seven tattva are:[43]

1. Jīva – The soul which is characterized by consciousness.

2. Ajīva – The non-soul.
3. Asrava – Influx of karma.
4. Bandha – The bondage of karma.
5. Samvara – Obstruction of the inflow of karmic matter into the soul.
6. Nirjara – Shedding of karmas.
7. Moksha – Liberation or Salvation, i.e. the complete annihilation of all karmic
matter (bound with any particular soul).

Physical sciences

Scientific realism
:
Scientific realism is, at the most general level, the view that the world (the universe)
described by science (perhaps ideal science) is the real world, as it is, independent of
what we might take it to be. Within philosophy of science, it is often framed as an
answer to the question "how is the success of science to be explained?" The debate
over what the success of science involves centers primarily on the status of entities
that are not directly observable discussed by scientific theories. Generally, those who
are scientific realists state that one can make reliable claims about these entities
(viz., that they have the same ontological status) as directly observable entities, as
opposed to instrumentalism. The most used and studied scientific theories today
state more or less the truth.

Realism and locality in physics

Realism in the sense used by physicists does not equate to realism in

metaphysics.[44] The latter is the claim that the world is mind-independent: that
even if the results of a measurement do not pre-exist the act of measurement, that
does not require that they are the creation of the observer. Furthermore, a mind-
independent property does not have to be the value of some physical variable such
as position or momentum. A property can be dispositional (or potential), i.e. it can
be a tendency: in the way that glass objects tend to break, or are disposed to break,
even if they do not actually break. Likewise, the mind-independent properties of
quantum systems could consist of a tendency to respond to particular
measurements with particular values with ascertainable probability.[45] Such an
ontology would be metaphysically realistic, without being realistic in the physicist's
sense of "local realism" (which would require that a single value be produced with
certainty).

A closely related term is counterfactual definiteness (CFD), used to refer to the claim
that one can meaningfully speak of the definiteness of results of measurements that
have not been performed (i.e. the ability to assume the existence of objects, and
properties of objects, even when they have not been measured).

Local realism is a significant feature of classical mechanics, of general relativity, and

of electrodynamics; but quantum mechanics has shown that quantum entanglement
is possible. This was rejected by Einstein, who proposed the EPR paradox, but it was
subsequently quantified by Bell's inequalities.[46] If Bell's inequalities are violated,
either local realism or counterfactual definiteness must be incorrect; but some
physicists dispute that experiments have demonstrated Bell's violations, on the
grounds that the sub-class of inhomogeneous Bell inequalities has not been tested or
due to experimental limitations in the tests. Different interpretations of quantum
mechanics violate different parts of local realism and/or counterfactual definiteness.

The transition from "possible" to "actual" is a major topic of quantum physics, with
related theories including quantum darwinism.
:
Role of "observation" in quantum mechanics

The quantum mind–body problem refers to the philosophical discussions of the

mind–body problem in the context of quantum mechanics. Since quantum
mechanics involves quantum superpositions, which are not perceived by observers,
some interpretations of quantum mechanics place conscious observers in a special
position.

The founders of quantum mechanics debated the role of the observer, and of them,
Wolfgang Pauli and Werner Heisenberg believed that it was the observer that
produced collapse. This point of view, which was never fully endorsed by Niels Bohr,
was denounced as mystical and anti-scientific by Albert Einstein. Pauli accepted the
term, and described quantum mechanics as lucid mysticism.[47]

Heisenberg and Bohr always described quantum mechanics in logical positivist

terms. Bohr also took an active interest in the philosophical implications of quantum
theories such as his complementarity, for example.[48] He believed quantum theory
offers a complete description of nature, albeit one that is simply ill-suited for
everyday experiences – which are better described by classical mechanics and
probability. Bohr never specified a demarcation line above which objects cease to be
quantum and become classical. He believed that it was not a question of physics, but
one of philosophy.

Eugene Wigner reformulated the "Schrödinger's cat" thought experiment as

"Wigner's friend" and proposed that the consciousness of an observer is the
demarcation line which precipitates collapse of the wave function, independent of
any realist interpretation. Commonly known as "consciousness causes collapse", this
controversial interpretation of quantum mechanics states that observation by a
conscious observer is what makes the wave function collapse. However, this is a
minority view among quantum philosophers, considering it a misunderstanding.[49]
There are other possible solutions to the "Wigner's friend" thought experiment,
which do not require consciousness to be different from other physical processes.
Moreover, Wigner shifted to those interpretations in his later years.[50]

Multiverse

The multiverse is the hypothetical set of multiple possible universes (including the
historical universe we consistently experience) that together comprise everything
that exists: the entirety of space, time, matter, and energy as well as the physical
laws and constants that describe them. The term was coined in 1895 by the
American philosopher and psychologist William James.[51] In the many-worlds
interpretation (MWI), one of the mainstream interpretations of quantum
:
mechanics, there are an infinite number of universes and every possible quantum
outcome occurs in at least one universe, albeit there is a debate as to how real the
(other) worlds are.

The structure of the multiverse, the nature of each universe within it and the
relationship between the various constituent universes, depend on the specific
multiverse hypothesis considered. Multiverses have been hypothesized in
cosmology, physics, astronomy, religion, philosophy, transpersonal psychology and
fiction, particularly in science fiction and fantasy. In these contexts, parallel
universes are also called "alternative universes", "quantum universes",
"interpenetrating dimensions", "parallel dimensions", "parallel worlds", "alternative
realities", "alternative timelines", and "dimensional planes", among others.

In several theories, there is a series of, in some cases infinite, self-sustaining cycles –
typically a series of Big Crunches (or Big Bounces). However, the respective
universes do not exist at once but are sequential, with key natural constituents
potentially varying between universes (see § Anthropic principle).

Anthropic principle
The anthropic principle, also known as the "observation selection effect",[52] is the
hypothesis, first proposed in 1957 by Robert Dicke, that there is a restrictive lower
bound on how statistically probable our observations of the universe are, because
observations could only happen in a universe capable of developing intelligent
life.[53] Proponents of the anthropic principle argue that it explains why this
universe has the age and the fundamental physical constants necessary to
accommodate conscious life, since if either had been different, we would not have
been around to make observations. Anthropic reasoning is often used to deal with
the notion that the universe seems to be finely tuned for the existence of life.[54]

Personal and collective reality

Each individual has a different view of reality, with different memories and personal
history, knowledge, personality traits and experience.[55] This system, mostly
referring to the human brain, affects cognition and behavior and into this complex
new knowledge, memories,[56] information, thoughts and experiences are
continuously integrated.[57] The connectome – neural networks/wirings in brains –
is thought to be a key factor in human variability in terms of cognition or the way we
perceive the world (as a context) and related features or processes.[58][59][60]
Sensemaking is the process by which people give meaning to their experiences and
make sense of the world they live in. Personal identity is relating to questions like
how a unique individual is persisting through time.
:
Sensemaking and determination of reality also occurs collectively, which is
investigated in social epistemology and related approaches. From the collective
intelligence perspective, the intelligence of the individual human (and potentially AI
entities) is substantially limited and advanced intelligence emerges when multiple
entities collaborate over time.[61] Collective memory is an important component of
the social construction of reality[62] and communication and communication-
related systems, such as media systems, may also be major components .

Philosophy of perception raises questions based on the evolutionary history of

humans' perceptual apparatuses, particularly or especially individuals' physiological
senses, described as "[w]e don't see reality — we only see what was useful to see in
the past", partly suggesting that "[o]ur species has been so successful not in spite of
our inability to see reality but because of it".[63]

Scientific theories of everything

A theory of everything (TOE) is a putative theory

of theoretical physics that fully explains and links
together all known physical phenomena, and
predicts the outcome of any experiment that could
be carried out in principle. The theory of
everything is also called the final theory.[64]
Many candidate theories of everything have been
proposed by theoretical physicists during the
twentieth century, but none have been confirmed
experimentally. The primary problem in producing
a TOE is that general relativity and quantum
mechanics are hard to unify. This is one of the
unsolved problems in physics. White matter tracts within a
human brain, as visualized
Initially, the term "theory of everything" was used
by MRI tractography
with an ironic connotation to refer to various
overgeneralized theories. For example, a great-
grandfather of Ijon Tichy, a character from a cycle of Stanisław Lem's science fiction
stories of the 1960s, was known to work on the "General Theory of Everything".
Physicist John Ellis[65] claims to have introduced the term into the technical
literature in an article in Nature in 1986.[66] Over time, the term stuck in
popularizations of quantum physics to describe a theory that would unify or explain
through a single model the theories of all fundamental interactions and of all
particles of nature: general relativity for gravitation, and the standard model of
elementary particle physics – which includes quantum mechanics – for
electromagnetism, the two nuclear interactions, and the known elementary
particles.
:
Current candidates for a theory of everything include string theory, M theory, and
loop quantum gravity.

Technology

Media

Media – such as news media, social media, websites including Wikipedia,[67] and
fiction[68] – shape individuals' and society's perception of reality (including as part
of belief and attitude formation)[68] and are partly used intentionally as means to
learn about reality. Various technologies have changed society's relationship with
reality such as the advent of radio and TV technologies.

Research investigates interrelations and effects, for example aspects in the social
construction of reality.[69] A major component of this shaping and representation of
perceived reality is agenda, selection and prioritization – not only (or primarily) the
quality, tone and types of content – which influences, for instance, the public
agenda.[70][71] Disproportional news attention for low-probability incidents – such
as high-consequence accidents – can distort audiences' risk perceptions with
harmful consequences.[72] Various biases such as false balance, public attention
dependence reactions like sensationalism and domination by "current events",[73]
as well as various interest-driven uses of media such as marketing can also have
major impacts on the perception of reality. Time-use studies found that e.g. in 2018
the average U.S. American "spent around eleven hours every day looking at
screens".[74]

Filter bubbles and echo chambers

A filter bubble or ideological frame is a state of intellectual isolation[75] that can
result from personalized searches when a website algorithm selectively guesses what
information a user would like to see based on information about the user, such as
location, past click-behavior, and search history.[76] As a result, users become
separated from information that disagrees with their viewpoints, effectively isolating
them in their own cultural or ideological bubbles.[77] The choices made by these
algorithms are only sometimes transparent.[78] Prime examples include Google
Personalized Search results and Facebook's personalized news-stream.
In news media, an echo chamber is a metaphorical description of a situation in
which beliefs are amplified or reinforced by communication and repetition inside a
closed system. By visiting an "echo chamber," people are able to seek out
information that reinforces their existing views, potentially as an unconscious
exercise of confirmation bias. This may increase political and social polarization and
extremism. The term is a metaphor based on the acoustic echo chamber, where
:
sounds reverberate in a hollow enclosure. "Echo chambers" reinforce an individual's
beliefs without factual support. They are surrounded by those who acknowledge and
follow the same viewpoints.[79]

Virtual reality and cyberspace

Virtual reality (VR) is a computer-simulated environment that can simulate physical

presence in places in the real world, as well as in imaginary worlds.

The virtuality continuum

is a continuous scale
ranging between the
completely virtual, a
virtuality, and the Reality-virtuality continuum.
completely real: reality.
The reality–virtuality
continuum therefore encompasses all possible variations and compositions of real
and virtual objects. It has been described as a concept in new media and computer
science, but in fact it could be considered a matter of anthropology. The concept was
first introduced by Paul Milgram.[80]

The area between the two extremes, where both the real and the virtual are mixed, is
the so-called mixed reality. This in turn is said to consist of both augmented reality,
where the virtual augments the real, and augmented virtuality, where the real
augments the virtual. Cyberspace, the world's computer systems considered as an
interconnected whole, can be thought of as a virtual reality; for instance, it is
portrayed as such in the cyberpunk fiction of William Gibson and others. Second
Life and MMORPGs such as World of Warcraft are examples of artificial
environments or virtual worlds (falling some way short of full virtual reality) in
cyberspace.

"RL" in internet culture

On the Internet, "real life" refers to life in the real world. It generally references life
or consensus reality, in contrast to an environment seen as fiction or fantasy, such as
virtual reality, lifelike experience, dreams, novels, or movies. Online, the acronym
"IRL" stands for "in real life", with the meaning "not on the Internet".[81]
Sociologists engaged in the study of the Internet have determined that someday, a
distinction between online and real-life worlds may seem "quaint", noting that
certain types of online activity, such as sexual intrigues, have already made a full
transition to complete legitimacy and "reality".[82] The abbreviation "RL" stands for
"real life". For example, one can speak of "meeting in RL" someone whom one has
met in a chat or on an Internet forum. It may also be used to express an inability to
use the Internet for a time due to "RL problems".
:
 See also
Alternate history
Counterfactual history
Derealization
Extended modal realism
Modal realism
Hyperreality

Notes
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7. dynamis–energeia, translated into Latin as potentia–actualitas (earlier also
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References
Berger, Peter L.; Luckmann, Thomas (1966). The Social Construction of Reality:
A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge. New York: Anchor Books. pp. 21–22.
Jain, S. A. (1992). Reality (https://books.google.com/books?id=uRIaAAAAMAAJ).
Jwalamalini Trust. "Not in Copyright" Alt URL (https://archive.org/details/Reality_
JMT)

Further reading
George Musser, "Virtual Reality: How close can physics bring us to a truly
fundamental understanding of the world?", Scientific American, vol. 321, no. 3
(September 2019), pp. 30–35.
"Physics is... the bedrock of the broader search for truth.... Yet [physicists]
sometimes seem to be struck by a collective impostor syndrome.... Truth can
be elusive even in the best-established theories. Quantum mechanics is as
well tested a theory as can be, yet its interpretation remains inscrutable. [p.
30.] The deeper physicists dive into reality, the more reality seems to
evaporate." [p. 34.]

External links
Miller, Alexander. "Realism" (https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/realism/). In Zalta,
Edward N. (ed.). Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
C.D. Broad on Reality (http://www.ditext.com/broad/reality.html)
Phenomenology Online: Materials discussing and exemplifying
phenomenological research (http://phenomenologyonline.com/)
The Matrix as Metaphysics by David Chalmers (http://consc.net/papers/matrix.ht
ml)

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