We assume that our reality is the one true reality because all of the past civilizations were founded on myths, illusions and false ideas about reality. We think modern sciences provide the only truly objective knowledge of reality but the very idea of objective reality is been debated by experts from various fields for over a century.

Misconceptions About The Real World

In our real world being a human means being an individual, one who lives ultimately for oneself. We think that nature has made us this way, to thrive and compete with other individuals for life's important resources. But this real world of ours in neither timeless nor universal. It's just one of countless real worlds that humans have experienced in history.

What Does It Mean To Be A Human In Our Real World? 

The whole Athenian way of being human was radically different from our own. Life in Athens was sustained by "cosmic ecology", a symbiotic ecology of gods, motherland and people. This was practiced by ancient Egyptians, ancient Chinese, and people of many pre colonial societies.   To us, their real world looks strange, bizarre and unreal. Our real world's uniqueness comes from the scientific revolution, capitalism and the enlightement.

What Does This Tell Us? 

Reality is something that humans actively participate in producing when their minds interact with the environment. Every people in the past had to devise a model of the real world which they would use as a basis for their whole values and lives. If that model proved to be sustainable then it became internalized in the mind and baked into the environment and the effect of a stable real world would be generated. Therefor, no human being has ever experienced a truly objective reality. Each of us are shaped by whatever model of the world happens to be embedded in the minds and the environment.

What Is Objective Reality? 

For us, real things are material things which are made up of matter that we can somehow see, like objects, trees, atoms etc. While invisible, immaterial things like gods, demons, heavens and hells are considered simply as beliefs- subjective things that exist only in the realm of the mind. To be real, a thing must exist objectively, in some visible, material form, whether our minds can percieve it or not.

What Is It That Makes Something Real In Our Real World? 

Human things- peoples, cities, societies, cultures, economy. We think that we're special and that we're the only ones who have things like language, reason, free will. By contrast, non human things to us are just part of nature, a mere environment of things that we feel entitled to use however we want.

What Are The Most Important Things In Our Real World? 

Key aspects of their real world-<ol><li>It was alive with things that we would consider unreal- nymphs, curses, and mysterious energies and magic. </li><li>The most important thing were gods. That's because for them gods controlled everything- rainfall, child birth, wealth, wars. And gods were not someone who watched them from afar but were really there in experience.</li><li>Humans did not live apart from nature. Their land wasn't just property but a living goddess. </li><li>There were no individuals and all families were expected to live and work together as a single body(dêmos). </li></ol>

The Real World Of The Classical Athenians

<ol><li>We need to stop thinking that pre modern people are more primitive or less enlightened.  </li><li>We need to be more humble. Even with our technological achievements our modern world has produced countless horrors: genocides, wars, the holocaust, climate change, extinctions etc. Our model has failed in practice.</li><li>Other models/real worlds are possible. They are being lived in places like Amazonia, the Andes and many more. We should start imagining other possible and more sustainable ways of being human in other worlds. </li></ol>

Conclusion 

Visit http://TED.com to get our entire library of TED Talks, transcripts, translations, personalized talk recommendations and more. In the grand scheme of history, modern reality is a bizarre exception when compared to the worlds of ancient, precolonial and Indigenous civilizations, where myths ruled and gods roamed, says historian Greg Anderson. So why do Westerners today think they're right about reality and everybody else is wrong? Anderson tears into the fabric of objective reality to reveal the many universes that lie beyond -- and encourages a healthy reimagining of what other possible ways of being human could look like. The TED Talks channel features the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less). Look for talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design -- plus science, business, global issues, the arts and more. You're welcome to link to or embed these videos, forward them to others and share these ideas with people you know. Become a TED Member: http://ted.com/membership Follow TED on Twitter: http://twitter.com/TEDTalks Like TED on Facebook: http://facebook.com/TED Subscribe to our channel: http://youtube.com/TED TED's videos may be used for non-commercial purposes under a Creative Commons License, Attribution–Non Commercial–No Derivatives (or the CC BY – NC – ND 4.0 International) and in accordance with our TED Talks Usage Policy (https://www.ted.com/about/our-organization/our-policies-terms/ted-talks-usage-policy). For more information on using TED for commercial purposes (e.g. employee learning, in a film or online course), please submit a Media Request at https://media-requests.ted.com

philosophy

Philosophy

Visit http://TED.com to get our entire library of TED Talks, transcripts, translations, personalized talk recommendations and more.

In the grand scheme of history, modern reality is a bizarre exception when compared to the worlds of ancient, precolonial and Indigenous civilizations, where myths ruled and gods roamed, says historian Greg Anderson. So why do Westerners today think they're right about reality and everybody else is wrong? Anderson tears into the fabric of objective reality to reveal the many universes that lie beyond -- and encourages a healthy reimagining of what other possible ways of being human could look like.

The TED Talks channel features the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less). Look for talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design -- plus science, business, global issues, the arts and more. You're welcome to link to or embed these videos, forward them to others and share these ideas with people you know. 

Become a TED Member: http://ted.com/membership
Follow TED on Twitter: http://twitter.com/TEDTalks
Like TED on Facebook: http://facebook.com/TED
Subscribe to our channel: http://youtube.com/TED

TED's videos may be used for non-commercial purposes under a Creative Commons License, Attribution–Non Commercial–No Derivatives (or the CC BY – NC – ND 4.0 International) and in accordance with our TED Talks Usage Policy (https://www.ted.com/about/our-organization/our-policies-terms/ted-talks-usage-policy). For more information on using TED for commercial purposes (e.g. employee learning, in a film or online course), please submit a Media Request at https://media-requests.ted.com

The TED Talks channel features the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less). Look for talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design -- plus science, business, global issues, the arts and more. You're welcome to link to or embed these videos, forward them to others and share these ideas with people you know.

TED's videos may be used for non-commercial purposes under a Creative Commons License, Attribution–Non Commercial–No Derivatives (or the CC BY – NC – ND 4.0 International) and in accordance with our TED Talks Usage Policy: https://www.ted.com/about/our-organization/our-policies-terms/ted-talks-usage-policy. For more information on using TED for commercial purposes (e.g. employee learning, in a film or online course), please submit a Media Request at https://media-requests.ted.com