The ''subjective character of experience'' is a term in psychology and the philosophy of mind denoting that all

subjective Subjective may refer to: * Subjectivity, a subject's personal perspective, feelings, beliefs, desires or discovery, as opposed to those made from an independent, objective, point of view ** Subjective experience, the subjective quality of conscio ...

phenomena A phenomenon ( : phenomena) is an observable event. The term came into its modern philosophical usage through Immanuel Kant, who contrasted it with the noumenon, which ''cannot'' be directly observed. Kant was heavily influenced by Gottfried W ...

are associated with a single

point of view Point of view or Points of View may refer to: Concept and technique * Point of view (philosophy), an attitude how one sees or thinks of something * Point of view (literature) or narrative mode, the perspective of the narrative voice; the pronou ...

ego Ego or EGO may refer to: Social sciences * Ego (Freudian), one of the three constructs in Sigmund Freud's structural model of the psyche * Egoism, an ethical theory that treats self-interest as the foundation of morality * Egotism, the drive to ...

"). The term was coined and illuminated by Thomas Nagel in his famous paper " What Is it Like to Be a Bat?"Nagel, Thomas (1974) What is It Like to Be a Bat? ''The Philosophical Review'' LXXXIII, 4 (October): 435–50. Nagel argues that, because bats are apparently conscious mammals with a way of perceiving their environment entirely different from that of human beings, it is impossible to speak of "what is it like to ''be'' a bat ''for'' the bat" or, while the example of the bat is particularly illustrative, any conscious species, as each organism has a unique point of view from which no other organism can gather experience. To Nagel, the subjective character of experience implies the cognitive closure of the human

mind The mind is the set of faculties responsible for all mental phenomena. Often the term is also identified with the phenomena themselves. These faculties include thought, imagination, memory, will, and sensation. They are responsible for various m ...

to some facts, specifically the mental states that physical states create.

Subjective reality

Subjective character of experience implies that the perception of all things, concepts, and "truths" in the universe differs between individuals: we all live in different worlds, each of which may have things in common, because of our unique perspectives on our worlds. The only thing to which one can hold oneself is something one has experienced or perceived. Until someone has had an experience of something the object or concept within itself is not "real." Someone in Africa is aware of the existence of fire and sees it but for an Inuit who has never seen fire before the fire does not exist in the same way. The idea of the subjectivity of one's "reality" also hints at an aspect of

moral relativism Moral relativism or ethical relativism (often reformulated as relativist ethics or relativist morality) is used to describe several philosophical positions concerned with the differences in moral judgments across different peoples and cultures. ...

, that each person's opinions are the only things they can hold themselves to.

References

* *Song, D. ''Subjective Universe: Interweaving Matter and Mind through Cyclical Time.'' 2020 {{DEFAULTSORT:Subjective Character Of Experience Consciousness studies Subjective experience

Subjective reality

See also

References