Reality
Postmodern saying: There is no truth, there are only versions.
Related: authenticity - documentary - fact - hyperreality - naturalism - neorealism - non-fiction - perception - realism - reality television - simulation - simulacrum - truth - universal - virtual reality
Definition
The term reality refers to everything that actually exists. Reality, in its widest sense, includes everything that there is, whether or not it is observable, accessible or understandable by science, philosophy or any other system of analysis. Reality in this sense may include both being and nothingness, whereas "existence" is often restricted to being.
Reality may also be defined in a more restricted way: Reality is that portion of ultimate reality which is accessible to scientific and philosophical observation, investigation and theoretical interpretation. Some portion of ultimate reality may lie beyond our scope to examine or even imagine.
What people consider science and philosophy is often defined culturally and socially. See socially constructed reality for more discussion on this point. --http://wikipedia.com/wiki/Reality
Art and reality
Ben Watson in Music, Violence, Truth (2001) http://www.andyw.com/publications/music_violence_truth/Postmodernism, truth and reality
Postmodernists often express a profound skepticism regarding the Enlightenment quest to uncover the nature of truth and reality. Perhaps the most striking examples of this skepticism are to be found in the works of French cultural theorist, Jean Baudrillard. In his book Simulations, he contends that social 'reality' no longer exists in the conventional sense, but has been supplanted by an endless procession of simulacra. The mass media, and other forms of mass cultural production, generate constant re-appropriation and re-contextualisation of familiar cultural symbols and images, fundamentally shifting our experience away from 'reality', to 'hyper-reality'. --http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postmodernism, Aug 2003
The Social Construction of Reality - Peter L. Berger, Thomas Luckmann
The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge - Peter L. Berger, Thomas Luckmann [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
See Peter Berger
More books
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The Return of the Real: Art and Theory at the End of the Century () - Hal Foster
[Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
See Hal Foster
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Realities () - Jan Saudek [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
See Jan Saudek
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Welcome to the Desert of the Real: Five Essays on September 11 and Related Dates (2002) - Slavoj Zizek [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
See Slavoj Zizek