Tok Sense Perception

This author ascribes to the empiricism paradigm. This paradigm is similar to empirical knowing in that it is based on the premise that what is known can be verified through the senses, or

How does one not know if there is another aspect of catergorie that exist that we don't know as well as how do we know that our reality is a reality?

In everyday life, people are faced with thought provoking questions regarding the legitimacy of their observations. For some, it can be mind blowing metaphysical questions, for example, is what people observe actually present and real. Then for others, it can be minor issues like whether or not a certain person is who they say they are or if their appearance matches their personality. Nonetheless, appearances can be deceiving. Often time creating illegitimate realities that can influence people’s decisions and perception.

One of the most fundamental questions in philosophy is the one of appearance vs. reality. We find ourselves asking the question of what is genuinely “real,” and what is viewed merely as just an “appearance,” and not real? It becomes difficult when we assume there is a difference in the two to determine which is which. Generally, what we label as “real” is regarded as external

A long time ago the difference between perception and reality was defined as the act of understanding in contrast to the act of being real. Reality could be tricky; most of us including myself depending on scenarios of our lives tend to give in to ideas which are not applicable to reality as a whole. The best example of this is written in the short story “All Over” by Guy de Maupassant. In which his main character Lormerin is very self conscious and narcissistic also Lise de Vance, a former old love plays a big role in hurting Lormerin ego and opening his eyes by showing him, his real self. Many would say that when reality knocks it could be harsh and confusing. In the next couple of

Sense perception is one way that allows us to interact and communicate with each other and the world. This is our primary way of knowing because our senses live experiences that we go through. Based on our senses we are to make interpretations of the world. For example, in class, each pair was given a box. Inside the box, there was one metal ball, but you had to figure out the structure or the form of a maze inside the box. We couldn't see inside the box, and we couldn’t touch the inside of the box. By using our sense of hearing and another way of knowing, imagination, we were able to make an educated guess of what the inside structure of the box looked like.

Perception is the way in which we view reality, ourselves, others and the world around us. The reality is the real state of things. In fact, it is how things are, whether we perceive them to be or not. Perceptions are based on experience and then experience leads to belief. Most feel their beliefs are true, however, all they have is their perception. Perception comes from how they choose to describe their experiences, or how they have been taught to understand them. Truth does not always come from experience; it comes from facts and

Appearances are what things seem to be whereas reality is what things really are. If you see an object that can be known by the senses, then the senses tell us about the appearance of the object. We perceive only the sense data of an object not the object itself. Sense data are things that are immediately known in sensation, sensation meaning the experience of being immediately aware of things (Russell 6). Colors, smells, taste, texture, all of these things count as sense data. Since our sense data is subjective, what we perceive depends on the relationship we have with the object. What we directly see and feel is merely ‘appearance’, which we believe to be a sign of some ‘reality’ behind (Russell 11). We never actually experience an object and because we don’t experience, we cannot know whether that object is there or if the object is even real. Regarding the table argument we perceive the sense data of the table, but all we see is the table’s appearance not the object itself, therefore we cannot know if the table is

A famous example of how sense perception is a reliable way of knowing that can help you distinguish what is true and what is believed to be true is the Descartes Wax Experiment. In this experiment, people were blindfolded and were told to touch melted wax. Based on touch and a posteriori knowledge of what wax feels like the subject we not able to identify the liquid to be wax until it hardened on the fingers. This experiment shows how sense perception can help you determine what is true. With sense perception, you can determine what is true right in front of your eyes because whatever you see is what you believe to be your reality.

As the species that depends on sight more than any other scent, seeing so often has certainly become much more than believing, which is only further reinforced by this age of intense and numerous visual stimuli. Upon my recent visit to New York City, I could easily see that the line for the virtual city ride at the Empire State building was much longer than that for the observation deck. This mania for visual experience has taken over, increasing our conviction in what we see as what is, despite their crucial differences. Yet, this is no newfound novelty. The human tendency to take things at their face value is ancient and persisting. This excessive dependence on visual stimulation has led to an excessive false belief in the falsity of appearances; a belief that causes the casual classification of people that is so rigid and narrow in its function that failure to fit into them results in losing one's sense of identity, even when identity is itself such a fluid and complex concept. I have always contended that human beings have a tendency to classify what we experience into categories and assign them with labels. With our dependence on visual stimulation, we generate concepts and categorizations based on what we see, and file them away to be used on a wider scale, allowing those who live in China and those who live in the UK to synthesis the signified through a similar signifier. As our world becomes more

In conclusion, we always have that blur between appearance and reality sometime in our lives dealing with ambiguous

The issue in the philosophy of perception is explaining how perception could give someone either knowledge or a justified belief about the world. We recognize this reality to be something which we cannot change in any way. However, it can not be said about the perception of reality being completely true. The strange thing of all this is that reality may not actually exist. The reason we all think in one reality is that we only see our central point of the story. Just because someone sees something in a specific way does not make it so. This problem has been viewed in terms of a skeptical argument that appears to show that such knowledge and premise are impossible. Although I agree that perception of life may or may not be true, I cannot accept

Knowledge, as we all understand, can be general or specialized. We are able to gather knowledge about certain aspects of reality, branches of science, skills, traits and phenomena observable in nature. But there is another kind of “knowledge”, which is the sum of every subcategoric, specific knowledge. This knowledge is what we know about the “world” - how knowledgeable we are, how well can we navigate the seas of reality because of our knowledge about its currents, flows and hidden reefs.