INTRO TO PHILOSOPHY

Naive realism is the belief that we see reality as it truly is and is a default cognitive stance for most of us. We instinctively process our perceptions are objective, while others who disagree must be uninformed, irrational, or biased. This illusion fuels internal conflict in our own worldview, interpersonal conflict when we misunderstand others’ perspectives, and societal conflict from being entrenched in opposing narratives.

I hate to break it to you, but we as humans, whether considered individually or collectively, cannot be objective. The Blind Men and the Elephant highlights the diversity of the human experience between people more accurately. Intersubjectivity is how we create a map that gets us anywhere that we want to go. It is the collective approximation of objectivity by encouraging subjectivity on the individual level while being open to collective correction.

Rights of Conscience (freedom of religion) includes the rights to free choices and particularly for everyone’s freedom of thought, conscience, religion or belief. We all get to choose how we perceive reality, and there are a lot of options within philosophy.