Distinguishing Between the Material Reality and Social Reality

In the so-called “post-truth age” that commenced in the mid-2010s, fake news and unsubstantiated claims have gained popularity mostly stemming from the human observer’s confusion between the material reality and social reality. The article proposes a logical grid for testing whether an object or phenomenon under scrutiny belongs to the former or latter type of reality, and whether, from the human observer’s perspective, its existence is objective or subjective within such a given reality’s confines. The discussion is foregrounded with the history of spatialized conceptualizations of the material and social reality, and concludes with a reflection on the prospect of a rising non-human (machine-generated) social reality.