How realistic is our perception?

2 Commentsby   |  10.04.10  |  Announcements

This lecture reminded me of a conversation my dad and I had prior to me leaving for college. How do we know what other people see is the same as what we see? On "FML" one time I saw a post about a dad who had taught his daughter the colors wrong because he thought it would be funny. After reading this I laughed but then thought about it. We only know what we are taught to be colors. We are taught blue is blue, green is green, and so on; but how do we know that the color we perceive to be blue or perceive to be green is actually the same as the color the teacher perceives to be blue or green. What if the people we believe are "colorblind" actually have it right and we are actually the ones who do not see colors properly? 

I also sometimes wonder if the events in our lives other people perceive to exist are different from the events we perceive to exist. Even when two people see the same event, they recall it differently, so what if this is how all of life is? Maybe we perceive what someone else says differently than how they perceive they said it. What if we only perceive that other people exist. We can not ever get inside someone else's head to be sure that they really exist. Our brain can perceive pain in a limb that no longer exists, so we can never really be sure that what we feel actually exists. What if when we touch other people it is only our brain thinking that there is another person there? 
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2 Comments

  1. Courtney Price
    1:30 pm, 10.04.10

    That is the best FML ever on a light note. I also think it is interesting that we all perceive things differently. This is especially true with some of the kids that I work with in our ISP program.

  2. Alyssa Bowyer
    1:40 pm, 10.04.10

    I have always been curious about the difference between “normal” vision and those who are partially or fully color blind. Everyone could potentially be seeing something different and not know it, and there isn’t really a way of determining reality. Just like what you said about each person perceiving situations differently. No one ever really tells a story the same way, so which way is true?

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