When going about our daily lives, most of us experience the world as being “real” — in other words, objects, people and events exist in an external world that we can interact with. Sure, sometimes when we dream, our minds create a reality that can seem as vivid as the “real” one. But upon waking, we find that the world has gone on without us.
Such insights into the nature of reality seem obvious. But the more scientists and philosophers delve into what is defined as real, the more they find that concrete answers are hard to come by. Are physical objects real? Is reality fundamentally immaterial? In what sense does the world exist outside of the mind?
While we can’t expect to find immediate answers to these questions, the human experience of what is real is undoubtedly shaped by the use of one of our most important evolutionary innovations: ...
