Discuss the problems involved in discovering and explaining discrepancies that may exist between what is physically before us and what we experience subjectively. Define and give an example of reification.
Since the early Greeks, the difference between subjective and objective reality has been an issue. The reality which actually has a physical presence is called objective or physical reality, while the reality which is experienced mentally is called phenomenal or subjective reality.
Some individuals accept that the subjective and objective realities are similar, that is, they believe in naive realism. However, some others believe that during the translation of physical experience to phenomenal one, something is gained or lost.
There exist discrepancies between subjective and objective realities under following situations:
1. If there occurs a partial response of sense receptors to what is physically present, such as to only certain colors or sounds.
2. If the information is distorted or lost during its transmission to brain from the sense receptors.
3. If the sensory information is transformed by the brain itself.
The tendency to believe the independent existence of something just because it has a name is called reification.
This fallacy was described by J. S. Mill. According to this fallacy, anything that has been thought to be apart has similar existence and the personification of abstractions has its most remarkable manifestations. In all ages, there exists a strong prosperity that anything with a name has a separate distinguishable existence. There is an outward objective reality that answers to every complex idea which has been formed by the mind for itself.
Entities like minds, demons, selves, souls, gods and spirits have been imagined throughout human history, and thus, have been assumed to have existence.