Perceiving reality is the action of consciousness via the senses. We perceive reality independent of ourselves by our senses. To form it, we must physically interact with it. We can form a snowball with snow by using our hands. We can observe the snow, and think about snowballs, but they will not materialize without physically picking up the snow and shaping it into a snowball. Our power over the physical world is directed by our consciousness via actions that directly physically interact with reality. In this sense we can induce the Objectivist principle that existence has primacy over consciousness - or the 'primacy of existence principle' as it is formally referred to.
Leonard Peikoff uses the following examples to illustrate this in OPAR:
From the outset, consciousness
presents itself as something
specific—as a faculty of perceiving an
object, not of creating or changing
it. For instance, a child may hate the
food set in front of him and refuse
even to look at it. But his inner
state does not erase his dinner.
Leaving aside physical action, the
food is impervious; it is unaffected
by a process of consciousness as such.
It is unaffected by anyone's
perception or nonperception, memory or
fantasy, desire or fury—just as a book
refuses to roll despite anyone's
tantrums, or a pillow to rattle, or a
block to float.
Existence is unaffected by consciousness when only consciousness is used in and of itself. It is when consciousness volitionally directs the actions of the physical being in which it is present that reality can be affected.
answered
Mar 07 '11 at 18:30
dream_weaver ♦
593●9
We do have power over the physical world with respect to shaping and rearranging it. However I suspect that you mean creating or destroying it in part or in whole. To prove that reality exists independently of consciousness, you simply need to observe the results after you wish for the non-existence or existence of an entity. Unlike our dreams which operate outside the realm of logic, reality does not and cannot contradict its own laws. We must obey reality in order to shape it.
Your evidence for this is that you can open your eyes and see the things around you. This is direct evidence for you from your personal experience. Any other conclusion must demonstrate positively that your direct experiential evidence is invalid or incomplete. Without such a positive demonstration, any assertion that "reality is independent from consciousness" is empty words and it is to be disregarded as content-less and as having no connection to reality.