Subjective character of experience

That all subjective phenomena are associated with a single point of view ("ego") is called the subjective character of experience. The term was coined and illuminated by Thomas Nagel in his famous paper What is It Like to Be a Bat?^[1]

Nagel argues that because bats are apparently conscious mammals with an entirely different way of perceiving their environments than the way in which human beings do, it is possible to conclude that there is something that is like to be a bat—something it is like for the bat. While the example of the bat is particularly illustrative, any conscious species might fit. Further, any organism would work, as each organism has a unique point of view from which no other organism can gather experience.^{[citation needed]}

Nagel claims that the subjective character of experience implies the cognitive closure of the human mind to some facts, specifically the way in which physical states create mental ones.

Subjective Reality

Subjective reality ties into this very deeply. Subjective reality states that reality and all of the things concepts and "truths" in the universe change between individuals. Simply put, we all live in different worlds. All of these worlds may have things in common but because of each of our unique perspectives on our worlds we are left with an altered existence or reality of existence. If someone in Africa is aware of fire and is seeing it and an Eskimo in the Arctic that has never seen fire before to him the fire does not exist. (One might think, "What about air we can't see? Can we believe it's not there?" One could, but everyone experiences air by breathing although you could categorize it as something else. It could be anything you interpret it as but it exists because you experience it.) Until someone has had an experience with something the object or concept within itself is not real which is why there are religious conflicts. If we could simply just know there was a god then we would all know but there are different perspectives and interpretations of different events and philosophies. Subjective reality also hints at the aspect of moral relativism which states that each person's opinions are the only things they can hold themselves to. In the same way, in subjective reality the only thing someone can hold themselves to is something they have experienced or perceived.

See also

• Dualism (philosophy of mind)
• Inverted spectrum
• Functionalism
• The map is not the territory
• Mary's Room
• Philosophy of mind
• Philosophy of perception
• Physicalism
• Qualia
• Zombies

References

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