A defense of objective reality against arguments that attempt to undermine objective truth. The video explores arguments in favor of subjective reality—or socially constructed reality—and shows how they fail.
0:00 The "mini-world" argument against objective reality (for subjective reality)
1:24 The basics of objectivity
2:39 Belief vs. reality (ontological subjectivity vs. ontological objectivity)
3:35 Summary of objective reality and objective truth
3:58 The rejection of objective reality (in favor of subjective reality or social construction)
4:56 The "tallest mountain on earth" example
6:19 Reply the "tallest mountain on earth" example and the "mini world" argument
9:53 Conclusion
10:03 Coda: Race and gender
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Further Reading
The Construction of Social Reality, John Searle (1995)
Metaphysics, "Objectivity", Peter Van Inwagen (2014)
Footnotes
0. The content of this video very roughly tracks a part of the Realism/Anti-Realism debate in contemporary analytic philosophy and the position I defend borrows heavily from the work of John Searle and Peter van Inwagen. The main arguments are theirs—any mistakes are mine. (And surely there are mistakes. The topic is vast and complex; no ten minute video could cover it adequately!)
1. Technically, truth is a property of *propositions* and a belief is true or false in virtue of the truth or falsity of the proposition believed. That every proposition is either true or false is called the principle of bivalence, and anti-realism—which is roughly the view I’m criticizing in this video—tends to reject bivalence.
2. This is not an *epistemology* video about ways of knowing or the kinds of things we know. So we are not discussing *epistemic* subjectivity/objectivity. This is a metaphysics video about truth and the nature of reality. So I say “ontologically subjective” to make clear that we are talking about modes of existence as opposed to an epistemic category.
3. I say *most* of reality does not depend on you and me because, of course, some of reality does depend on us. We raise our hands, shuffle our feet, and re-arrange furniture (among other things). Thus, there are facts about the world that *depend on us*. And, our our subjective conscious states are also a part of reality. Nevertheless, the vast majority of reality does not depend on us in either of these ways.
#objectivetruth
#objectivereality
#socialconstruct
