kara walling blog 10

reflection on outside reading:Peter Berger "The Social Construction of Reality"
12/1/09

Peter Berger says that social reality is a form of consciousness, and he also talks about the relationship between society and the individual. His main theory is the sociological theory, which talks about how our conception of reality defines interaction with social structures. I agree with his findings and I actually remember a time we were talking about this in class. I'm pretty sure Dr. Redick was talking about how one of his friends was living in his own world, which obviously wasn't reality, but to him it was. What I was wondering is, if his mind believes he is living in a certain world, why wouldn't that be considered reality? As I was reading Berger's work this example Dr. Redick told us in class was constantly popping into my mind. I guess it is saying that reality is a social construction, not an individual construction. So, if we all were living in the same world at Dr. Redicks friend, then it could in fact be considered reality, but since it is out of the norms and he is the only one living it, it becomes something different or that specific individual is looked upon as looney. This is a concept I kind of struggle with because there are so many aspects to look at, but it is interesting to think about the real and the perceived reality of things.