Metaphysics: Objective reality

("Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed" )



In the following post I will analyze some concept/s of the essentials of the classical Objectivism as published in the ARI pages proposing expansions, complements and/or new thoughts about them.

Traditional Objectivism:

Metaphysics
"Reality, the external world, exists independent of man's consciousness, independent of any observer's knowledge, beliefs, feelings, desires or fears. This means that A is A, that facts are facts, that things are what they are—and that the task of man's consciousness is to perceive reality, not to create or invent it." Thus Objectivism rejects any belief in the supernatural—and any claim that individuals or groups create their own reality.


Expanding the concept:

No question reality exists outside human perception: A is always A no matter some people's beliefs or how many people are not totally aware of this basic fact.
And when traditional Objectivism "...rejects ...any claim that individuals or groups create their own reality..." it is certainly referring to a positive reality for man living "qua man" (Because it is undeniable that some individuals or groups are in fact able to "create" diverse types of false or distorted realities in their minds)

My contribution:

1-The "real" reality, the things in their most profound an complete nature are never fully knowable.
Since we perceive them only with our wonderful but limited senses and minds we can only know a part (eventually a big part) of them.
We can easily test this affirmation by learning anything new about some thing around us: we know now more about that specific thing that we knew few seconds before and this process of deepening the knowledge about anything can be infinite. Also can be infinite the possibilities of evolution of our brain so in the same way that we perceive better and deeper the reality than a chimpanzee, the man in the future will certainly be able to perceive them better and deeper than us.
Of course concluding that we don't and we can't know anything at all is a huge mistake from lazy, nihilistic or skeptic minds, because we yes can know enough about almost anything to deal with them for any human purpose.
As a practical example we can know enough about a chair in order to handle them, move, use, reproduce, repair, change, etc. or whatever other purpose.
More: Any excess of knowledge about the chair, like the crystalline molecular structure of the nails, or the hardness coefficient of the wood are normally not useful for practical purposes, so they would only take a precious vital time to learn and a costly space in your brain's memory that could be used instead for more important things

2-From the previous point we can conclude a very important assertion:
We only know about the reality our own perception of them.
We always build inside our mind a mental model of the reality around us and every thing on them including ourselves. This is the reason because it is so important develop, refining and matching our mental models as close as possible with the objective reality, it is a matter of survival and success in the real World. Our consciousness, our reason, our intelligence, are definitely the best tools to do this.
The more complete, complex and accurate the mental model we construct of the reality, the more chances to be successful in daily life either for particular tasks or projects or for long term objectives like living a long happy existence for example.

3-If points 1 and 2 are true then we have a very powerful tool to change our World: Our own mind.
Either by wishing the change as the first primary step to then think the way and move forward to "do it", or using your mind to change itself.
This last option is specially critical in an essential matter which is the perception of ourselves inside the whole reality.
Who are you? (who do you think you are?) And perhaps even more important: Who do you want to be?
Can you really move the mountain that is obstructing the Sun with your current resources? Or it is easier to move yourself to be able to see the Sun?
In the same manner the easier way to change the World is changing the way you see and interpret them, it means changing, improving, expanding your mind in order to be able to achieve your values. Or even learning other values or changing yours when necessary, by example when they don't fit the reality or don't make you happy.
Because what makes everyone of us finally happy or unhappy is our perception and interpretation of the reality and not the reality itself

For me the ultimate challenge is being free to chase your dreams about yourself, becoming able to be the hero of your own movie: your existence.