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Reality in everyday usage means "everything that exists". The term reality, in its widest sense, includes everything that is, whether 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 (compare with nature).

In the strict sense of Western philosophy, there are levels or gradation to the nature and conception of reality. These levels include, from the most subjective to the most rigorous: phenomenological reality, truth, fact, and axiom.

Phenomenological reality

On a much broader and more subjective level, the private experiences, curiosity, inquiry, and selectivity involved in the personal interpretation of an event shapes reality as seen by one and only one individual and hence is called phenomenological. This form of reality might be common to others as well, but at times could also be so unique to oneself as to be never experienced or agreed upon by any one else. Much of the spiritual experience of an individual occurs on this level of reality.

Truth

When two or more individuals agree upon the interpretation and experience of a particular event, a consensus about an event and its experience begins to be formed. This being common to a few individuals or a larger group, then becomes the 'truth' as seen and agreed upon by a certain set of people. Thus one particular group may have a certain set of agreed truths, while another group might have a different set of truths that have reached consensus. This lets different communities and societies have varied and extremely different notions of reality and truth of the external world. The religion and beliefs of people or communities are a fine example of this level of reality. This is well expressed in the famous quote by Henry Thoreau, "It takes two to speak the truth — one to speak and another to hear." However, humans are fallible and are limited to individual experience. Truth cannot simply be considered truth if one speaks and another hears because individual bias and fallibility take away any assertion that the idea of truth, itself, exists.

Other views of truth assert that truth is that which is considered to be the supreme reality and to have the ultimate meaning and value of existence, regardless of subjective inference. Truth can not merely be discerned by deductive reasoning but can only be more deeply understood by inductive study and skepticism.

Fact

A fact or factual entity is a phenomenon that is perceived as an elemental principle. It is rarely one that could be subject to personal interpretation. Instead it is most often the observed phenomena of the natural world. The proposition 'the sun rises in the east', is a fact. It is a fact for people belonging to any group or nationality regardless of which language they speak or which part of the hemisphere they come from. The Galilean proposition in support of the Copernican theory, that the sun is the centre of the solar system is one that states the fact of the natural world. However during his lifetime Galileo was ridiculed for that factual proposition, because far too few people had a consensus about it in order to accept it as a truth. Fewer propositions are factual in content in the world, as compared to the many truths shared by various communities, which are also fewer to the innumerable individual phenomenological realities. Much of scientific exploration, experimentation, interpretation and analysis is done on this level.

This view of reality is well expressed by Philip K. Dick's statement that "Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away."

What reality might not be

"Reality", the concept, is contrasted with a wide variety of other concepts, largely depending upon the intellectual discipline. It can help understand what we mean by "reality" to note what we say is not real but usualy if there is no original and related proofs it isn't reality.

In philosophy, reality is contrasted with nonexistence (penguins do exist; so they are real) and mere possibility (a mountain made of gold is merely possible, but is not real) unless they are discovered. Sometimes philosophers speak as though reality is contrasted with existence itself, though ordinary language and many other philosophers would treat these as synonyms. They have in mind the notion that there is a kind of reality — a mental or intensional reality, perhaps — that imaginary objects, such as the aforementioned golden mountain, have. Alexius Meinong is famous, or infamous, for holding that such things have so-called subsistence, and thus a kind of reality, even while they do not actually exist. Most philosophers find the very notion of "subsistence" mysterious and unnecessary, and one of the shibboleths and starting points of 20th century analytic philosophy has been the forceful rejection of the notion of subsistence — of "real" but nonexistent objects.

It is worth saying at this point that many philosophers are not content with saying merely what reality is not — some of them have positive theories of what broad categories of objects are real, in addition. See ontology as well as philosophical realism; these topics are also briefly treated below.

In ethics, political theory, and the arts, reality is often contrasted with what is ideal.

One of the fundamental issues in ethics is called the is-ought problem, and it can be formulated as follows: "Given our knowledge of the way the world is, how can we know the way the world ought to be?" Most ethical views hold that the world we live in (the real world) is not ideal — and, as such, there is room for improvement.

Political theory is often an extension of the above. Few (if any) political views hold that the world we live in is the best possible world. Most political views argue that the world — or, more specifically, present-day society — could be improved in one way or another, and propose various means to achieve such an improvement.

In the arts there was a broad movement beginning in the 19th century, realism (which led to naturalism), which sought to portray characters, scenes, and so forth, realistically. This was in contrast and reaction to romanticism, which portrayed their subjects idealistically. Commentary about these artistic movements is sometimes put in terms of the contrast between the real and the ideal: on the one hand, the average, ordinary, and natural, and on the other, the superlative, extraordinary, improbable, and sometimes even supernatural. Obviously, when speaking in this sense, "real" (or "realistic") does not have the same meaning as it does when, for example, a philosopher uses the term to distinguish, simply, what exists from what does not exist.

In the arts, and also in ordinary life, the notion of reality (or realism) is also often contrasted with illusion. A painting that precisely indicates the visually-appearing shape of a depicted object is said to be realistic in that respect; one that distorts features, as Pablo Picasso's paintings are famous for doing, are said to be unrealistic, and thus some observers will say, but with questionable grammatical correctness, that they are "not real." But there are also tendencies in the visual arts toward so-called realism and more recently photorealism that invite a different sort of contrast with the real. Trompe-l'œil (French, "fool the eye") paintings render their subjects so "realistically" that the casual observer might temporarily be deceived into thinking that he is seeing something, indeed, real — but in fact, it is merely an illusion, and an intentional one at that.

In psychiatry, reality, or rather, the idea of being in touch with reality is integral to the notion of schizophrenia, since it has often been defined in part by reference to being "out of touch" with reality. The schizophrenic is said to have hallucinations and delusions which concern people and events that are not real. However, there is controversy over what is considered out of touch with reality, particularly due to the noticeable comparison of the process of forcefully instituting individuals for expressing their beliefs in society to reality enforcement. The practice's possible covert use as a political tool can perhaps be illustrated by the 18th century psychiatric sentences in the U.S. of black slaves for 'crazily' attempting to escape. See also anti-psychiatry and one of its prominent figures, the psychiatrist Thomas Szasz.

In each of these cases, discussions of reality, or what counts as "real", take on quite different casts; indeed, what we say about reality often depends on what we want to say it is not.

Note: Nothing here necessarily supports the views of www.fastlaneGT.com or it's owner & staff. This is merely for entertainment purposes.

A local ordinance in Atwoodville, Connecticut prohibits people from playing Scrabble while waiting for a politician to speak.

The state legislature in North Dakota has rejected a proposal to erect signs specifically warning motorists not to throw human waste onto the road side. Maintenance workers report at least 20 incidents of road crews being "sprayed with urine after rupturing urine-filled plastic bottles that became swollen in the hot sun." Opponents of the measure say they're afraid the signs would discourage tourism.

Found on Axius Sno-Off Automobile Windshield cover: "Caution: Never drive with the cover on your windshield."

Found on a box of Kellogg's Pop-Tarts: "Warning: Pastry Filling May Be Hot When Heated"

Found on the instruction sheet of a Conair Pro Style 1600 hair dryer: "WARNING: Do not use in shower. Never use while sleeping."

Found on Bat Man The Animated Series Armor Set Halloween costume box: "PARENT: Please exercise caution, mask and chest plate are not protective; cape does not enable wearer to fly."

Found in a television set's owner's manual: "Do not pour liquids into your television set."

Found on the handle of a hammer: "Caution: Do not use this hammer to strike any solid object."

Found on a butane lighter: "Warning: Flame may cause fire."

In most places, when a drawbridge is open, the only land vehicle that can claim priority over boats is a truck hauling the US mail. This option is seldom if ever exercised, of course.

In 1388, English Parliament banned waste disposal in public waterways and ditches.

In 1996, Christmas caroling was banned at two major malls in Pensacola, Florida. Apparently, shoppers and merchants complained the carolers were too loud and took up too much space.

In Atlanta, Georgia, it is illegal to tie a giraffe to a telephone pole or street lamp.

The ship, the Queen Elizabeth 2, should always be written as QE2. QEII is the actual queen.

Quebec and Newfoundland are the only two provinces which do not allow personalized license plates.

A Chilean man who has been stopped from voting in three elections because officials keep insisting he is dead said he was tired of arguing and would never try to vote again. "I'm tired of complaining without any success. I think this is the last time I am going to bother," said Ernesto Alvear, 74. For the third time in an election, Alvear was told by officials in the port city of Valparaiso that he could not vote because, officially, he had been dead for almost 10 years. The mix-up was due to the death of another man with the same name, forcing Alvear to provide skeptical officials with documents proving he is alive.

During World War I, the punishment for homosexuality in the French army was execution.

During World War II, bakers in the United States were ordered to stop selling sliced bread for the duration of the war on January 18, 1943. Only whole loaves were made available to the public. It was never explained how this action helped the war effort.

In Sweden, when leaving someone's home, wait until you get to the doorway to step outside before putting on your coat. To do so earlier suggests you are eager to leave. When entering or departing a Russian home, it is considered very bad form to shake hands across the threshold.

In Germany, shaking hands with the other hand in a pocket is considered impolite. In Mali, men shake hands with women only if women offer their hand first. The handshake is often done with the left hand touching the other person's elbow as well.

During the time of Peter the Great, any Russian man who wore a beard was required to pay a special tax.

At the first professional baseball game, the umpire was fined 6 cents for swearing.

To pass U.S. Army basic training young female recruits must do 17 pushups in two minutes. Males must do 40 pushups in two minutes.

In Hartford, Connecticut, you may not, under any circumstances, cross the street walking on your hands.

Mailing an entire building has been illegal in the U.S. since 1916 when a man mailed a 40,000-ton brick house across Utah to avoid high freight rates.

Snoring is prohibited in Massachusetts unless all bedroom windows are closed and securely locked. It is also illegal to go to bed without first having a full bath.

Women in Florida may be fined for falling asleep under a hair dryer, as can the salon owner.

It is legal in North Dakota to shoot an Indian on horseback, provided you are in a covered wagon.

The mummified hand of a notary public, chopped off for falsely certifying a document, has been on display in the city hall of Munster, Germany, as a warning to other notaries for 400 years.

The curtain or veil used by some Hindus and Moslems to seclude or hide their women from strangers is called a "purdah."

Margaret Sanger was jailed for a month, in 1917, in a workhouse for founding a clinic that dispensed contraceptives.

In the Middle Ages, the highest court in France ordered the execution of a cow for injuring a human.

A girl, in the Vacococha tribe of Peru, to prepare her for marriage at the age of 12, is placed in a basket in the hut of her prospective in-laws and must remain suspened over an open fire night and day for 3 months.

The Spanish Inquisition once condemned the entire Netherlands to death for heresy.

During the eighteenth century, books that were considered offensive were sometimes punished by being whipped.

In the marriage ceremony of the ancient Inca Indians of Peru, the couple was considered officially wed when they took off their sandals and handed them to each other.

In 1968, a convention of beggars in Dacca, India, passed a resolution demanding that the minimum amount of alms be fixed at 15 paisa (three cents).

Because of heavy traffic congestion, Julius Caesar banned all wheeled vehicles from Rome during daylight hours.

Talking on a cellular phone while driving is against the law in Israel.

In Milan, Italy, there is a law on the books that requires a smile on the face of all citizens at all times. Exemptions include time spent visiting patients in hospitals or attending funerals. Otherwise, the fine is $100 if they are seen in public without a smile on their face.

The minimum age set in the U.S. Constitution for the President of the United States is 35.

In Athens, Greece, a driver's license can be taken away by law if the driver is deemed either "unbathed" or "poorly dressed".

Impotence is grounds for divorce in 24 U.S. states.

The murder rate in the Unted States is 200 times greater than in Japan. In Japan no private citizen can buy a handgun legally.

The movie 'Cleopatra', starring Elizabeth Taylor, was banned from Egypt in 1963 because she was a Jewish convert.

Golf was banned in England in 1457 because it was considered a distraction from the serious pursuit of archery.

It is illegal to marry the spouse of a grandparent in Maine, Maryland, South Carolina, and Washington, DC.