Perceiving the weird and the wonderful. The mysterious metaphysics of phenomenology, art and science.

What is it that appears to us: an objective reality or a subjective illusion? A brief history of the continental philosophical approach to this question is given, followed by an introduction to the recent continental movement toward Realism, which accepts there must be mind-independent entities of some kind. Yet if such an objective reality exists this raises the problem of how we can possibly conceptualise what exists and happens there, since by definition it is beyond our concepts — or at least beyond our current ones. Hence it seems mysterious, weird and wonderful. I illustrate how the arts and sciences have independently approached this question, and suggest some commonalities in their conclusions. Finally, I discuss the importance of individual differences in how we perceive and think.