Reality Orthodoxy

The established, institutionalized set of beliefs about reality that dominate Western thought—the often-unexamined assumptions that reality is objective, that it exists independently of observers, that it's accessible through science and reason, that some descriptions are simply accurate while others are delusions, and that the scientific account of reality is the only legitimate one. Reality orthodoxy includes specific commitments: that the world is made of matter, that causes precede effects, that objects exist independently, that perception can be mistaken, that science reveals reality as it is. Like all orthodoxies, it provides a framework for understanding the world, but it functions as ideology when it becomes dogmatic—making a particular conception of reality seem like the only conception, obscuring how reality is always mediated by experience and culture, and delegitimizing alternative understandings (indigenous realities, phenomenological realities, constructed realities). Reality orthodoxy determines what counts as "real," what descriptions are "accurate," and who counts as "in touch with reality" versus "delusional."

Example: "He dismissed her experience as 'not real' because it didn't match scientific descriptions—not because he'd considered different kinds of reality, but because reality orthodoxy had made his conception of reality seem like Reality itself. The orthodoxy's power is making one kind of real feel like the only kind."

by Dumu The Void March 17, 2026