Objective Reality

I have been writing a book on Stoicism and its relation to Christianity. Tangential to my work on this book I got into a discussion with my sister who was visiting the other day. We got into a deep discussion about objective reality. She insisted to me that there is no objective reality and that reality is just a "narrative" between people. Refraining from invective, I told her in a round-about way that such a claim, in such terms, was just so much psycho-babble.

My argument was this: that there is an objective reality out there that we perceive through our senses, though we may see it imperfectly.  Whether we share a "narrative" with someone else regarding what that reality might be makes no difference. What is important is to have our understanding be as close to reality as possible.  Those who act in ways that most accurately reflect the objective reality are the people who will be most successful.

Of course, she would not accept this argument so I gave her an example. I hypothesized that there was a woman laying on the dining room table with an appendix that was about to burst. A witch doctors stood over her waving bones and chanting. An entire tribe of aboriginal people stood about her waving their arms and "sharing a narrative" with the witch doctor. What I asked are this woman's chances of survival? Is reality changed by their view of it? The woman's only hope was that a modern medical doctor walk on the scene with a scalpel and cut out her appendix. Lucky for the woman, I hypothesized this as well. His view was closer to reality than the witch-doctor's and the woman was saved. Thus objective reality triumphed.