Cognitive Realism

The philosophical position that our cognitive and nervous systems fundamentally determine how we see, perceive, and understand reality. Cognitive Realism argues that there is no direct, unmediated access to reality—everything we experience is processed through the structures of human cognition. Our brains evolved to navigate a specific environment, not to perceive reality as it is in itself. Colors aren't "out there"; they're how our brains interpret wavelengths. Time isn't flowing; that's how our consciousness processes sequence. Cognitive Realism doesn't deny that reality exists; it insists that our access to it is always mediated, always interpreted, always shaped by the peculiarities of human cognition. It's the foundation of neuroscience-informed epistemology, the recognition that the mind is not a window but a lens—and lenses distort as much as they clarify.

Example: "He used to think he saw the world as it really was. Cognitive Realism showed him otherwise: his brain was interpreting, constructing, shaping. The redness of the rose wasn't in the rose; it was in his nervous system. Reality was real, but his experience of it was his—not the world's, but his brain's."

by Abzugal March 9, 2026

Anti-realism of the Laws of Physics

A philosophical position holding that the laws of physics are not descriptions of an independent reality but rather human constructions—useful tools for prediction, elegant summaries of regularities, or convenient fictions that help us navigate experience. Anti-realism about physical laws asserts that electrons, forces, and fields are concepts, not things; that equations describe our experience, not reality-in-itself; that scientific success doesn't require truth, just empirical adequacy. This position draws on the history of theory change (past theories were "true" but abandoned), underdetermination (multiple theories fit the same data), and the recognition that observation is theory-laden. Anti-realism doesn't deny that science works; it just denies that working proves correspondence to an independent reality. The laws are our maps, not the territory.

Anti-realism of the Laws of Physics Example: "Her anti-realism of physical laws meant she saw quantum mechanics as a brilliant predictive tool, not a description of reality-as-it-is. When the math worked, she celebrated the tool, not insight into the noumenal world. The map is useful; the territory remains unknown."

by Dumu The Void March 19, 2026

Constructed Reality Theory

A framework asserting that what we take as reality is a construct—a product of human practices, language, and social agreements. This doesn’t mean reality is “fake” but that our access to it and its meaning are always mediated by construction. The theory encompasses social constructionism, symbolic interactionism, and phenomenological constructionism. It explains why different communities can have different “realities” while still living in the same physical world: they’ve constructed different meaning systems, institutions, and ways of engaging.

Example: “Constructed reality theory explains why the same piece of land is a sacred site to one group, a resource to another, and a legal territory to a third—all real, all constructed.”

by Dumu The Void March 23, 2026

Interpersonal Reality Theory

A theoretical framework positing that reality—or at least what individuals experience as “real”—varies from person to person, shaped by personal history, community belonging, cultural background, and social position. It argues that facts, evidence, and even the criteria for what counts as proof are not universal but are mediated through interpersonal relationships and group identities. Two people can look at the same event and inhabit two different “realities” because their frameworks for interpreting it are incommensurable. The theory does not claim that nothing exists outside perception, but that our access to reality is always filtered through the interpersonal contexts that constitute us.

Example: “They argued past each other for hours until she invoked Interpersonal Reality Theory: ‘We’re not disputing facts; we’re living in different realities shaped by different communities, and until we acknowledge that, we’ll never hear each other.’”

by Dumu The Void March 30, 2026

Infrapersonal Reality Theory

An extension of Interpersonal Reality Theory, focusing on the infra‑individual level—the cognitive, neurological, and psychological infrastructure that shapes how each person experiences reality. It posits that before interpersonal differences, there are infrapersonal differences: variations in attention, memory, sensory processing, and cognitive schemas that mean no two people ever experience the “same” world, even when standing side by side. Reality is not only interpersonally negotiated but also infrapersonally constructed, built from the unique architecture of each mind.

Example: “His infrapersonal reality theory explained why they could never agree on the memory: her brain encoded the event through emotional salience, his through factual detail—different realities from the moment of perception.”

by Dumu The Void March 30, 2026

Ad-Mented Reality

Augmented reality, only augmented with ads

ad-mented reality in google street view is... well just weird...

Ad-Mented Reality, term coined first by Molly Wood, January 13th, 2009, on Buzz Out Loud Episode 1144

by highac3s January 13, 2010

brain generated reality

May be defined as the sensory perception of the environment ,subsequently integrated into
the existing consciousness- a consciousness which is off-course subjective.Reality therefore, is different for each individual but having many common grounds.

Prosenjit N Sinha

Russel sees a cat being reminded of the tabby his aunt had. Rasoul feels aggression, having being
scratched by one as a child. Brain generated reality here is different for each, arising out of a similar
environmental stimuli

by prosen_clarity June 27, 2016