Seeing Is Believing

Do you ever wonder if you know anything? In his argument for skepticism, Peter Unger, states that “nobody ever knows anything to be so” (Unger, Pg. 42). If this were to be true, can one be certain that one knows things about oneself, the world one lives in, and about others? In fact, through the use of different methods, one can indeed know things about oneself, the world one lives in, and about others, which is why Peter Unger’s argument for skepticism can’t be true.

In life, what we perceive tends to show misconception in how the thought plays out. A good example would be the character Jay Gatsby in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s American classic: The Great Gatsby. Gatsby was unable to distinguish between his love for Daisy, a reality, versus the illusion that he could recapture her love by establishing and inventing a fraudulent past. He believed he could repeat the past, and acquire a flaunting wealth. In the novel, Jay Gatsby seems incompetent in establishing a difference between the realities of his life versus the illusion he made out.

It may be that a genetic predisposition to perception exists, but that situational factors also have to be in place for it to develop.

In simple words skepticism means the ability to doubt.Theres a very famous argument termed as " The Dreaming Argument " by Chuang Tzu .The argument goes as Tzu dreamt of being a butterfly in his dream so now when hes awake how can he be sure that it isnt a butterfly dreaming of being a man .Its one of the greatest examples of thinking symetrically.There are two skepctical traditions that is Academic and Pyrrohonian Skepticism

Explain the visual process, including the stimulus input, the structure of the eye, and the transduction of light energy.

The term sensation is used when referencing the process of sensing the environment through taste, touch, sound, smell, and sight (Goldstein, 2014). Moreover, it is the process that occurs once the sensory receptor experiences stimulation, which in turn produces nerve impulses that are sent to the brain to be processed in its raw form, then perception comes into play (Goldstein, 2014). Perception is used to describe the way people interpret these sensations and tries to make sense of everything around them on a daily basis. Perception is the occurrences of the brain

Not everything we see is always as it appears to be. As we focus our attention and look a little more closely we find what is presented to us has deeper value than what the surface would have us think.

Sense perception is a way to gain information by using our sense: touch, feel, taste, see, hear, and smell, it is a way of knowing. When it comes to ways of knowing, like sense perception, it is questionable whether or not it affects us in a positive or negative way. It can be argued if it is leading us in the wrong direction. If you see it, do you believe it?

Since humans evolved, we’ve relied on our senses to guide us and help us survive, for without them, we’d have gone extinct a long time ago. Our sight lets us view the world around, allowing us not only to spot danger, but also to explore, and discover new places and objects, whilst our hearing allows us, for example, to survey our surrounding more efficiently. We’ve always needed our senses to survive, so much so that the idea of them being untrustworthy is a worrying thought, but is it possible for this to happen, and can our senses be deceived?

Skepticism is the Western philosophical tradition that maintains that human beings can never arrive at any kind of certain knowledge. Originating in Greece in the middle of the fourth century BC, skepticism and its derivatives are based on the following principles:

There are four different sources of knowledge: perception, introspection, reason and memory. All our knowledge roots from our perception. Perception is the way humans sense the world outside the body. We perceive through our five senses: see, hear, smell, taste, and touch. Humans gain knowledge through experiences and experience through perception. Usually we can trust our senses to perceive our surroundings effectively but there are times we misperceive. Illusions, hallucinations or impediments of the accurate flow of information to our senses are examples of misperceptions. For example if someone hits their head causing their vision to blur or impedes them from effectively processing what occurring around them, then they shouldn’t trust their senses. Another example would be an anxiety attack causing a signal of threat to the brain also preventing the person from correctly processing their surroundings. If nothing can prove we are misperceiving then we have good reason to be believe our senses.

How many times have you said, “No way, I do not believe it!” It is our natural tendency not to believe in something that we have not seen with our own eyes or experienced it personally. There is a saying, “seeing is believing” which has led us to a world full of skeptics. We want proof so we are not gullible fools. Skepticism, or scepticism, as it was spelled back in the ancient times, was pondered by philosophers who tried unsuccessfully to figure out the thought process and how we gain knowledge. Philosophers gave deep thought to determine how we arrive at such true beliefs and knowledge of the external world. Three such philosophers were Rene Descartes, David Hume and Christopher Grau. Rene Descartes was a French philosopher in the early 1600’s; David Hume was a Scottish Philosopher in the 1700’s, and Grau an American philosopher Professor born in 1970. The timeline s important because philosophical views have evolved over time. All three men were from different eras, but they each explored, argued, and addressed the topic of skepticism from their philosophical view. This proves that they take the subject of skepticism seriously, just as we should too. There is good reason to believe that a human’s knowledge of the external world results from both a posteriori knowledge acquired through sensory experience and a priori knowledge which is innate. Descartes, Hume, and Grau through their personal views and skeptical