Perception

Perception - The awareness of things through our five senses- sight, sound, touch, taste and smell... an active process...our experience of the world is affected not only by what is 'out there' (the data our senses collect), but also by the structure of our sense organs and our minds. Perception is really a two step process involving:

sensation - provided by the world

interpretation - provided by our minds - example: visual illusions not from the data collected but from the interpretation put on the data by our brain.

Perception are the result of a psychological process that combines what our eyes see with what we already think, feel, know, want, and believe, and then uses this combination of sensory information and preexisting knowledge to construct our perception of reality.

Daniel Gilbert, Psychology Professor - Harvard

Psychology Today (video)

Brain constructs a version of reality based on senses and past experience, context or expectations - which means sometimes the brain "assumes" incorrectly creating "misperception". (see text page 87-90)

Brain does not actively process all the information senses collect thus one's attention/focus can create a very different perception compared to another person. (see text page 91-93)

Why is perception important?

Determines our actions

Affects our communication / relationship with others

Can lead to political or personal conflict - different groups/individuals each claim to possess the truth

Can affect our understanding in different Areas of Knowledge (primarily the Arts, History, Ethics, and the Human & Natural Sciences (see text page 93)

We use perception to predict our reaction to future events - what will make us happy. (Blind Spot in the Eye - part 2)

Perception Filters - Personal factors that create differences in our individual sense perception

Sensory ability/ limitations

Brain's filtering of stimuli / attention or focus

Age / Past experiences

Cultural Filters

Gender / Socio-economic filters

Other Ethical / Moral Beliefs

Expectations

Confirmation Bias - fallacy of reason that affects our sense perception. We only see or notice those examples that fit our preconceived beliefs/expectations.

Theories/School of Thought regarding Perception & the World

Empiricism - all knowledge is ultimately based on perceptual experiences.

Perceptual Realism (Common Sense Realism) - The view that our senses generally give us knowledge of the world around us. In other words, we posses genuine knowledge of the world around us based upon our sense experience. Our senses show us "what is really there". Small children do not understand that their perception of the world is not shared by everyone else - ie. that these is one, single view of reality shared by all.

Perceptual Skepticism - The view that we live in the world of appearances. We never experience the ‘real’ world; we experience the effects it has upon us. We can never get behind the appearance [‘the veil’].

Scientific Realism - The world does exist independently our our interaction with it but it exists differently from the way we perceive it.

Phenomenalism - matter exists only as a possibility/chance of our interaction with it (perception). One cannot prove the world exists outside of our interaction with it. It may or may not. "To be is to be perceived."

Perceptual Relativism - The view that there is no way of knowing objectively what the world is like in itself, only what it is like to you or to me.

Kant's theory of idealism - Perception is the result of a psychological process that combines what our eyes see with what we already think, feel, know, want, and believe, and then uses this combination of sensory information and preexisting knowledge to construct our perception of reality... We sometimes understand or are aware that other people's perception differs but we also forget or do not fully realize that our perception is our our interpretation of reality and not shared by all.

"The world as we know it is a construction, a finished product, almost - might say - a manufactured article, to which the mind contributes as much by its molding forms as 'the thing' contributes by its stimuli"

ToK - Knowledge Issues

"Perception" is an ambiguous word, often used to mean opinion. e.g. "In her perception, James Joyce did not merit his acclaim as a writer." "She perceived the inhabitants of the seaside village to be simple, free souls living in harmony with the sun and the tides." That is not how we are using the word in TOK. The Way of Knowing is sense perception, described in the Tok Guide as "the active, selective and interpretative process of recording of becoming conscious of the external world." Certainly, sense perception can lead to opinion, but it is important to clarify any confusion in student minds.

What are the major sense perception knowledge issues (for Tok Students)?

* What is the nature of the connection between our senses and the world around us? Do our senses give us the world as it really is? There are many topics within these questions - for instance, that we gain knowledge biologically, that we are variable from person to person in the acuity of our senses, that we know ourselves as human beings to be "missing" senses in comparison with other species, that we find ourselves to be inescapably interpretative - but the main point is to encourage students to recognize

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