Do you believe reality exists without an observer?

Question

Do you believe reality exists without an observer?

Answer 1

The idea that the universe exists only to accommodate human life is unsupportable anthropocentrism.

Reality laughs at our perceptions and goes about its business -- running everything.

(When we all close our eyes, the stars do not really disappear.)

Answer 2

...yes, i can work alone...thank you for asking...

Answer 3

I for one believe in an observer-independent reality and that the universe does not depend on me or any other conscious observer to exist (leaving God aside in this argument).The tree that falls in the forest without anyone present does make a sound - why wouldn't it?

Quantum theory seems to put great importance on the observer but I think the theory of everything if we ever have it will explain this puzzle better - Einstein certainly believed so.I agree with the point above that reality and objects say can appear to human senses in different forms and not as they are but I would argue that these still exist independently of observers.

Certainly, reality or parts of it can be described accurately and meaningfully by sentient observers but it still exists with or without them.

Answer 4

Yes.  The idea that reality doesn't exist when someone isn't there to observe it puts human beings at the center of the universe, the reason for any reality in the first place.  It's beyond arrogant and narrow-minded.  And if one believes that there's a God who did create the universe for man, then since that God is all-knowing and all-seeing, reality is never not being observed by God.  So either way you look at it, it makes no sense.

(Have you been reading Berkeley?)

Answer 5

My personal reality, unfortunately, would evaporate if I were not able to observe things. In that sense, everything depends on me. There is probably a universal reality that exists and which does not require an observer, but I transform it into something understandable to me at a personal level. Immanual Kant thought that we cannot know things as they really are, but as they are "presented" to us via the senses,so that, in a way, each of us forms and creates our own reality--which, by the way, could be very different from the way that things really are.

Answer 6

Yes. The universe was here long before we were.

Answer 7

Yes, but reality is changed by the act of observation, as quantum researchers have discovered. Since reality can only be experienced subjectively, we cannot divorce it from our perceptions. So we create our own individual reality, aspects of which are shared with others, but ultimately it is known only by our cognizance of it.

Answer 8

Rene Descartes said it best, "I think therefore I am."  

Answer 9

No, but that question is hot debate right now.