Is the perception of reality truly stronger than reality itself?

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Allow me to answer this question with an elucidation on three philosophical stances:

1. NAIVE REALISM:

Naive realism is a philosophical term that deals with the concept of the world being, objectively, the same as the way we perceive it, subjectively. It can be said to be a kind of correlation between the world as it is, and the world as our brains and senses and emotions tell us it is. So basically what this is saying is that our perceptions of reality is accurate and just as good as reality itself.

This doesn't seem very eye opening at first, of course, until one considers the other dualists/skeptical philosophies that claim otherwise. For example there is what is called EPISTEMOLOGICAL DUALISM, which pretty much says that the conscious experience we have of things around is not REALLY the way these things are, objectively. But the way they are IN OUR MINDS. This can be said to mean that depending on the strength of our reasonings and our minds, our perceptions of reality might be stronger or weaker than reality itself.

This isn't the only philosophical school that dispels or strengthens the accuracy of our sense experience. A lot them does it in their own different ways and with their own different peculiarities. Another one is the one we'll deal with next:

2. EMPIRICISM

Proposed by George Berkeley and John Locke, this philosophical theory proposes that ALL knowledge comes from our sense experience. In This form it is more epistemological than the question, which is why I'll like to switch to a more radical, more ontological form--Berkeley's Empiricism. Also known as SUBJECTIVE IDEALISM or IMMATERIALISM.

What subjective idealism or "Imaterialism" is about mainly is that objects have no independent existence on their own. That is, they CAN NOT and DO NOT exist independent of our individual subjective observations.

Crazy right?

I mean according to subjective idealism, when you see a beautiful bird land on a tree in the sunset and take in that beauty deep into your soul, the moment you STOP looking at them, the bird the tree and the sunlight all CEASE to exist, and only comes into existence by the virtue of your senses apprehending them again.

So in a way according to Berkeley our perceptions of reality is not only better than reality itself, it is the ONLY factor to be considered.

3. OBJECTIVISM:

Objectivism is the belief that certain things in reality, especially moral truths, exist independently of human knowledge or our perception of them.

You'll see of course that this is in fact a sort of antithesis to subjective idealism. According to this philosophy not only do objects exist independently, regardless of if we perceive them or not, but even abstract things such as Truth, and right or wrong, exist independent of our views on them.

It is also a form of Plato's Idealism expressed in his Theory of Forms, which says that all objects and concepts in existence take their form from a greater more perfect form of these objects and concepts. And even though they can never be as perfect as the REAL/higher form, they do exist independently.

So according to this philosophy our perceptions of reality can NEVER BE as good as reality itself and, is even way worse than the higher FORMS.

4. RATIONALISM

As objectivity is the ontological opposite of empiricism, rationalism can be said to be its epistemological opposite. That is, it opposes the claim that KNOWLEDGE can only be gained through our sense-experience.

According to rationalism, knowledge CAN be obtained via deep reasoning and contemplation, that is entirely exclusive of our senses. They call this "a priori" reasoning. That is knowledge that comes exclusively from theoretical deductions.

For example rationalists belief in "innate" ideas. That is knowledge buried deep inside our minds that can only be unearthed by deep introspection which has nothing to do with our external senses.

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So there they are, the various thoughts on the difference between our perceptions of reality and reality itself. I hope that going through them has at least gotten us a bit closer to a satisfactory answer.

Cheers.