The Social Construction of Reality

Philosophy and science have always been based on the idea that the world of appearances is an illusion that both reveals and conceals an underlying reali-ty. In many instances, this idea has been attached to mystical systems of thought, as in some Eastern philosophies that view reality as a play of fictions manifested by a universal mind. In the West, it has been the intellectual under girding for rationalism and empiricism, which have given rise …

…therein, so that the conventions of society do not obscure the fact that individuals are bonded by their humanity, not their individual categorizable physical characteristic. As participants, individuals tend to construct reality according to their conventions. The consequences of these conventions are defined through the relevance and reality, which the individual finds in the concrete situation. This process represents the significance to sociologist by which they can differentiate between social myth and human, universal perception.