You can only experience the external world through your consciousness. Certain contents of consciousness we assume to have an external correlate, others not, bu

You can only experience the external world through your consciousness. Certain contents of consciousness we assume to have an external correlate, others not, but there is no way to bypass our minds and check directly. Any given civilization has its own picture of reality, and draws its own line separating objective from subjective. We have a fairly conservative model of what is real, due to the influence of the scientific method, but the choice is ultimately arbitrary.