How do we know that our human perception of reality corresponds to reality itself?
Posted on March 28th, 2010 by admin
This is the most startling question I’ve ever encountered from a philosopher (Immanuel Kant) and I was wondering what you all thought. Kant’s argument is that we have no basis to assume that our perception of reality ever resembles reality itself. What if all we have is the experience; only copies, but never the originals… and what if those copies only come to us through the medium of our senses, while the originals exist independently of our means of perceiving them.
Kant is right.
March 28th, 2010 at 4:53 pm
This is more easily understandable if one considers the actual structure of an atom and the scale and placement of its components. If one takes into account the fact that the neutrons and protons form a dense cluster at the center of the atom and that the electrons orbit in such a way that huge spaces exist between them and the nucleus it becomes clear that the atoms that make up seemingly solid objects are made up of 99+ percent empty space at any given moment.
This alone does not seem too important until you add the idea that the atoms that make up many seemingly solid objects are more of a loose conglomeration that share a similar attraction but never really touch each other.
At first glance this does not really seem relevant, but closer analysis reveals that this adds a tremendous amount of empty space to solid objects that are already made up of atoms that could be thought of as 99 percent space. When so-called solid objects are seen in this light it becomes apparent that may not be the seemingly solid objects they appear to us to be.
We ourselves are not exceptions to this phenomenon.
These seemingly solid objects are more like ghostly images that we interpret as solid objects based on our perceptual conclusions.
From this one could conclude that Perception is some sort of a trick that helps us to take these ghostly images and turns them into a world we can associate and interact with. This clever device seems to be a creation of our intellect that enables us to interact with each other in what appears to be a three dimensional reality.
I want to add that this is based on my own personal way of looking at the situation and was never intended to be a physics lesson.
Love and blessings Don
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March 28th, 2010 at 5:37 pm
how do we know reality is, well, real? we don’t. this dilemma has been the basis of many interesting movies and ideas, like the matrix. all we know is inputed through the senses, and our senses are neither perfect nor absolute. we have to take it on faith that what we see of reality really is reality. think about sound waves. our senses can’t see them, but they are there. this is true of a lot of phenomena. the biologists say it’s because we only see whatever we need to see, on our scale, to survive. everything else, and that’s an undefinable amount of data, is essentially non existent for us.
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March 28th, 2010 at 5:45 pm
Read Popper(karl .R.).
i think he solved this(Kants dilemma),writing that "PERCEPTION of reality" is probably a myth,or a mistake(or both).
Certainly he showed that Hume made the first catastrophic mistake(calling a psycological tendency a real piece-of-knowledge),and western taught philosophy and even a large part of taught western education has been poor/poorer ever since.
When Popper said/quoted that "a kicked brick kicks back",he also showed that there is a reality for each and every one of us;fortunately he went on to show how and why the human "senses"fail;he even showed brilliantly how just one critical mind can overhaul even the poorest of senses(and the "poorest"philosophical so-called sense!).
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The work of K.R.Popper.
(inc his lectures at Emory university)
March 28th, 2010 at 6:08 pm
Kant is right.
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March 28th, 2010 at 6:40 pm
We are prisoners of our senses. Other creatures perceive a different reality. Bees, for example see way more into the infrared (heat), but they probably have no ear for music and certainly don’t spend all day thinking about sex, let alone an alcoholic buzz.
We never see a thing, only the light reflected from it. We never hear the thing making a sound, only vibrations traveling from it through the air. Taste is largely a function of smell, which is very good at triggering memories.
It has been said that if humans were capable of perceiving everything going on around them (dimensions including spiritual) he would die of fright.
Sounds like Kant is making a good point.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Doors_of_Perception
March 28th, 2010 at 7:23 pm
its pararellism.
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March 28th, 2010 at 8:05 pm
every division of human culture has their own perception of what truth is, either they reject the true truth or they follow a lie which they call truth.
most people follow a mixture of it all.
but knowing takes experience and correct interpretation.
if i live in platos CAVE everything in the cave is real, until i find out the shadows i see, come from a light that exists outside the cave. and i wont know anything for sure what is the truth, until i venture out of the cave and behold the source of light.
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March 28th, 2010 at 8:27 pm
In the words of William James, "Let me begin by reminding you of the fact that the possession of true thoughts means everywhere the possession of invaluable instruments of action; and that our duty to gain truth, so far from being a blank command from out of the blue, or a ’stunt’ self-imposed by our intellect, can account for itself by excellent practical reasons."
So, in Jamesian terms, how do we know that our human perception of reality corresponds to reality itself? Because we’re alive.
In the times of distant descendents, australopithecus let’s say, anywho who didn’t see the panther coming before the panther had time to pounce on him quickly became panther-food. And certainly this person did no reproducing thereafter.
False perception of reality led to the extinction of gene lines. Accurate perception led to their perpetuation. And here we are, the consequence of that process of natural selection. Views of reality that have survived with us have proven their value.
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