Reality and Perception?

Question

Hello, my name is Prof. C Lawrence Hansson, I am a prominent Australian Philosopher whose research centers on Philosophy of the mind. I am currently a Professor of Philosophy and lecture Philosophical Science at one of Queenslands most prestigious Universities. Today I am conducting a survey on " Reality " to see how much the community understands and grasps philosophy. I would like to hear from anyone, regardless of age, gender or

profession. What is reality, and what is perception, how do we perceive objects?

Answer 1

we perceive objects through the mind. reality is mind's understanding of those objects. meta-reality is perhaps just light and consciousness.

Answer 2

Perception is based on ones experiences in life and emotions.

Reality is a term that may be perceived differently by individuals,

based on their mental health and mores in life.

Answer 3

there is no such thing as "a reality" because what is defined at "real" is based on the categorical system of the human mind which is projected onto external phenomena. There are two types of stimuli, the one which reaches the lens, and the one which exists across time and space. It is interestin, ontologically speaking, that reality cannot exist without light. Light (and acoustics) is the fabric which connects the senses to the phenomena outside of the for-itself. We live in a fluid world but in an empty universe. When a particle has more energy, it takes up more space. When there is more space being taken up, that means the particle itself is more "empty".

What is real? is language "real"? I will argue against the mainstream pop-notion that what is real must be "observable". I believe in existentialism, structualism, nihilism, and I am atheist. I have studied the quantum reality, the linguistic reality, the ontological reality.... I read from Putnam, Fodor, Chomsky, Sartre, Derrida, Nietzche, Descartes, Heidegger, Camus, and Aristotle. Of these I enjoy Sartre the most.

Answer 4

In my view, reality is segmented into two distinct properties: Personal Reality, which is perceived differently to every creature, and Universal Reality, which is the overall nature of reality in general.  Most people take their Personal Reality as the full-blown real deal -- the height of the experience -- and seem to take it for granted that if they do not see or experience something in the universe directly themselves that it does not factually exist, or that the nature of reality itself is relative and can be altered to suit the creature perceiving it.  However, the presence of everything around them that they never perceive and yet has substance proves this mindset to be flawed, in my honest opinion.  The Personal Reality then becomes nothing more than an illusion, especially when it contradicts the nature of Universal Reality, and it should be in everyone's best interest to be in compliance with Universal Reality over Personal Reality, as the the preference for Personal Reality over Universal Reality can cause delusional problems which lead to mental disorders (I can vouch for this personally.)  This is simply for the fact that the human mind can conceive anything, but not everything which is conceivable is factually possible.  The only reason that we take it for granted and say that "anything is possible" is due to our ignorance concerning the nature of the universe which conflicts with our own inner nature in always presuming that we are right.  In my experience, when you assume that anything conceivable is possible, you pave the bridge to insanity and start walking its treacherous course...

My name is Holly Lynn McCurdy, I am 25 years old, hailing from a poor family who couldn't offer me a healthy education.  To compensate, I am a very deep thinker and attempt to learn what I can about the universe through a combination of direct experience (though dangerous it can be due to the level of my own ignorance), experimentation (including experimentation of the mind, which has led to some notable mental problems which I am working with), and intense contemplation.

Answer 5

Im a 22 year old student and to me reality is 99% perception.

Answer 6

Reality is based on perception

Perception is based on the individual senses, such as I like tomatoes they are good, but my brother doesn't, he says they are bad.

The reality of this is tomatoes, based upon the individuals taste, can be good or bad.

Answer 7

Are you "really" C. Lawrence Hansson? Is that reality, or just a perception you're trying to create?

Regardless, reality, broadly considered, has the following four constituents:

1)Everything that has ever appeared to anyone – whether the appearing has been long-lasting or fleeting, consequential or not – a wood stove keeping you warm or purple spots before your eyes indicating illness. Everything that has ever appeared to anyone has this much reality – it really has appeared! So we start with that. This is the "cogito" part of a famous formula.

2)Also, there are POTENTIAL appearances. The noise the tree makes in the uninhabited forest. Of course, somebody might have been there. Somebody might be there the next time a tree falls. We ought to have a conception of reality broad enough to include such unrealized possibilities.

3) Invisible cosmic machinery. We postulate that various things must be happening or have happened in order to make sense of that which appears to us. After all, appearances are strikingly law-like and predictable. The sun appears to rise in the east every morning. We postulate the laws of gravity and inertia that make sense of this, and this machinery too is real.

4)Those to whom things appear. Conscious minds. Us. This is the "Sum" part of the formula.

So reality, I imagine you might say, has all of those constituents. But it is often used in a narrower sense, focused especially upon (3). This is what we mean when we say, “I’m not interested in the appearances, only in the underlying realities.” Some appearances are privileged because they fit nicely with one another into a coherent whole, and with the underlying cosmic machinery we postulate. Other appearances, like the strange sights I dreamy last night, or the purple spots that swim briefly before my eyes when I suffer from a fever, don’t have that privilege, and are “merely” appearances, nothing more.

We might also consider the English language term “realty” or “real estate.” Land and the buildings permanently affixed to it are more real than other forms of property, by common consent as suggested in the language used to describe them.  

I think one good way of understanding the reality/perception issue is to think about parallel lines moving toward your visual horizon. Say, a pair of rail lines.

As you look at them, they appear to converge. But as you walk down the line and measure, you find that all the ties between them are the same length, there is no "real" convergence.

What does this mean? It means that under heading (3) above, the lines must be understood to be parallel, in order for the workings of the world (why the train keeps running smoothly along this track mile after mile and out of my sight) to be understood.

Answer 8

Reality is the ultimate truth.

The Universe works the way it works.

Perception is our flawed view thereof.

Science is the process of bringing perception closer to reality.

Answer 9

In reality, marriage is two people signing a paper. in perception, it is two people that should be madly in love committing to a lifelong bond.

in reality, death is the end of a heartbeat. in perception, it is the end of a life.

in reality, there are only facts, or what happened. in perception, there are opinions, views, feelings, wishes, emotions, ifs, ands, and buts.

Answer 10

Reality is the physical construct in which we can assert how 'prominent' we are in whatever profession we choose to pursue.

Answer 11

Reality is real life. It may not be what we want to see, but reality is real. Reality is the cold, hard truth about the world, and what we have made it. Reality is the unaltered, unfiltered truth about everything in the world, and everything that has happened to us. Perception is just how we see things. It may not be correct, and it may not be...good, but it's how we see things and the world around us. Perception and reality are forever intertwined. I can't explain it, but it is.