I have always been enamored with this idea: that our image, or vision, of the world is nothing more than our own personal creation. A prime example of this in film is from "The Matrix." Specifically, the scene where Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) attempts to explain to Neo (Keanu Reeves) that reality is not as ordered, definite, and external as most humans believe it to be.
Like Finkel stated, there is something unsettling about this idea. We, as humans, tend to not enjoy entertaining the idea that the world may not appear to be what we think it is, for we fear the unknown. We have our own preconceptions and notions about what the world "should" be. When faced with a view of the world that we find contradictory to our own, we may become defensive, angry, confused, and frightened. I believe differing views and conceptions of the world is an idea to be embraced.
James Elkins, in chapter two, talks of animals and how they perceive the world differently from humans. He states, "Some animals see different wavelengths than we do; this raises curious questions about how they perceive the world...they (bees) see mixtures of their two extreme colors (ultraviolet and orange) as a third color, which we cannot even begin to imagine" (65). This is fascinating! It is so cool that a species on our own planet can experience and perceive colors that humans can't fathom. So why limit this idea to just species? Why accept for a fact that all humans perceive the world the same way? We believe that we are complex and intricate beings. If this is true then not only do I find it easy to believe that a person's construction of reality is projected by his or her own mental image of the world, but I find it to be a truth.
Everything in this blog I found to be very interesting while i was reading the first few chapters. What really had me thinking was the passage about how animals perceive the world differently than humans do. It really was fascinating to read that a bee sees color we can't even begin to imagine. Facts such as that tend to scare people because it is such an extreme thought to imagine. Also the video clip was very interesting. I too agree that reality is projected by our own mental image of the world. It is a very fascinating point to think that when we see objects where are they? Simply images inside our head? Or are they physically out, in front of us, where we think they are?
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ReplyDeleteMaria Emilia Jaramillo
June 5th, 2011
It was really funny to read the end of Finkel’s article because he uses exactly the comparison I had done between the limits of what we perceive as real and Plato’s Allegory of the Cave. It seems as we both could relate to how it perfectly illustrates that seeing and perceiving are absolutely limited. I don’t mean to repeat what I already wrote on my first reflection paper but it seemed appropriate to start this new reflection exactly where I left off with the last.
As Finkel expresses, through scientific explanations, our brain has determined ways to make sense of the world. From what we perceive we construct a reality that makes us feel confortable because it provides reassurance that we have something. I agree with you, Dr. Coonfield, that it is really mind blowing to imagine that everything we believe to be real is just a creation of our minds and our perceptions. The scariest part of it all is that we have to live we that uncertainty, can we ever really know if what we consider to be real is in fact a reality? This reminds me of people who feel sorry for mental patients because they do not live in ‘reality’, but how can we be sure that we are not the ones that are living a false reality and that they are the ones that can actually see? It is a really frightening thought because it could so easily be true. On a simpler scale how many times has someone you know interpreted a situation differently than you because they saw it through their eyes?
When I saw the example from The Matrix, it also reminded me in a way of another movie Fight Club in which it also deals with this fear of creating meaning to a chaotic reality, which is what our brain is trying to do by attaining information through our senses. As Finkel explained we make try and create this meaning through what has already been established before and ‘everything becomes a copy of a copy’ because that helps us feel confortable in this reality that we make for ourselves. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykdmnS-MtXI&feature=related, Scene from fight club)
When I think about what we consider a reality I always remember of movies or a TV show where there is a whole story and then suddenly the protagonist wakes up and everything was a dream. What if we are dreaming and everything we feel, see, hear and think of as real is just a product of our brain while sleeping? I guess there is no definitive answer to that but it does make me reflect on the fact that we cannot set our perceptions of reality as absolute and unchanging truths just to have reassurance. We cannot let our fear of things that are unknown to us make us ignorant and prevent us from seeing beyond what our senses can construct.
I love both movies (The Matrix and Fight Club), partly because they both bend your mind around the fact that the world we perceive is often not the world as it in fact is - or that we think others perceive. I think optical illusions are also interesting moments in which our faith in perception as easy, simple, and largely accurate is shaken.
ReplyDeleteWhat restores that faith for me - well, strengthens it despite its being challenged - is the degree to which we can overcome the problem of perception and in a way synchronize our relations to one another and to our shared environment. We can come to agreement on so many features of the world around us that we make it a world in common, rather than a set of isolated, idiosyncratic worlds.
Good entry + comments!
I like the last part of your comment, Dr. Coonfield, about how we can come to "know" the world through shared relations with the external environment. I is really a big factor, and always makes me think about the reliability of the human species on language. It's funny to think that maybe language was created not just to communicate, but to relate to one another and create a solid, cohesive environment that we can all "know" exists.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you, Dr. Coonfield, the fact that we can over come our personal perceptions and managed to construct a somewhat global perspective of a reality does make it more possible that we have something legitimate to hang on to. Thank you for reminding me of that!
ReplyDelete"the degree to which we can overcome the problem of perception and in a way synchronize our relations to one another and to our shared environment." - Dr. GC
ReplyDeleteI think the most simple example of this (and I agree that it is encouraging) is our ability to shift our perspective from "the glass is half empty," to "the glass is half full." Reality says that the glass contains half of its origional units. Perception dictates whether or not you have lost units or you still have some left to "enjoy." I think all your comments pose the question which is the best mode of perception? Optimistic, pessimistic, or "simply" (and I use the term lightly) realistic? I believe the best perception is that of sensibility - realistically accepting a pessimistic perception (taking things at fact) but consciously looking for an for the right balance between the realistic/optimistic perception and the realistic/pessimistic perception according to (and changing for every) situation or circumstance.