whackedspinach

Thanks. I felt it was somewhere in Atlas Shrugged.

I recall a quote that I want to use and I believe it is from one of Rand's books, but I am not sure. I believe it is something like: Can anyone place this quote?

Okay, I understand what you are saying. Thanks for the clarification.

Is it possible to prove that my consistent senses are a true representation of existence?

Is there one true absolute existence? If this existence exists (i.e. everything is not just a figment of my imagination), how can I prove that what I see or interpret is the true existence? Example: If I saw an empty room and a person on drugs sees a room full of people, who is viewing the real world and whose mind is "editing" the existence to add or remove people to the room? And if neither of us can be proven right, how do we know there is an absolute existence? Edit: Grammar and organization

So there is a higher existence that everyone perceives differently? Isn't that basically the same as saying everyone's reality is subjective?

I am currently in an argument with my cousin (we are both fans of The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged), and we are discussing Objectivism, specifically whether or not reality can be objective. He argues that reality cannot be objective, because two people can see two different things and they can both assume that what they are seeing is correct. For example, I could see an empty room, but he may see the same room with dancing pink elephants all over the place (such as a hallucination). How can you possibly know what is real and what is not? Which reality is right? Is it possible to say a reality is right, since everyone could just be living in their own subjective reality?