Philosophy Perception

I was talking to a friend about perception and how everyone perceives everything differently but if we're all the same, in a way, how is it that we all have different perceptions and how can we be sure that our perceptions aren't delusions?

 

Thinking about this more shallowly than you intended, what if we all percieved colors differently? The color I see as blue could be red or green to someone else, and they'd never know the difference, could they?

I mean, green could be yellow to you, but since you've seen my green as "yellow" your entire life, you'd never realize it was different, would you?

This could be read into quite deeply, I think.

 

Ah... perceptions. They come along with prejudices, experiences, ideals... wishes, etc.

We have different lives. It's more than logical that we're going to see things differently as others.

So, how to tell if the perceptions are delussions? Always be humble to try to understand the other's point of view. That always helps

 

Perhaps, everyone's perception is based on what suits them the best. Plus, different people want different things in their life. I read the book about human nature and that in reality people care only about themselves, and how even the best of peoples intentions are actually self centred. The only difference is that some people are more self cented and some are less. So, i would say your perception is based on what suits you most.

 

I belive perceptions to be what our mind interprets as we gain more knowledge of the world around us... as such, all of our perceptions are different b/c we have different minds, and our minds are set apart this way b/c without such miniscule differences, the world would be a boring place that had no true defintion or true debate...if it werent for these small things the world would be so much more different then it is now...and it is quite funny...b/c what i have just said is my perception of perceptions....

 

I think most preception has to deal with how you grew up. Thankfully you can change one of the two.

 

Perception is just another word for "Frame of Reference" which defines someones background, education, and so on which gives them their perception. Alot of its also historical context, things that have gone on or are going on in the world today. Its comes from both inside and outside of you.

 

There are many factors that we don't all share.. Such as culture, religion, family, location, and experiences. If a person were locked in a dark room their whole life (and they could still see after all this time), they wouldn't know that a leaf is green like we do. It would be a brand new colour, we'd have to tell them it's green I suppose.

Oddly enough, there's some things that we all perceive the same, like emotions. I won't go into specifics, but look up the works of Paul Ekman. He and his colleagues travelled the world showing people of different cultures, including tribes, pictures of people's faces showing different emotions (These pictures were of people of various cultures, of course). They found that every culture could recognize expressions of anger, happiness, fear, surprise, disgust, sadness and contempt on these pictures. We can even recognize angry expressions of primates, too.

As for your question "how can we know if these are all just delusions".. This has been a hot topic in philosophy for 1000s of years I think some attempted answers to your question can be found in the "What is Reality?" thread.

 

perceptions are like that
I don;t think my 'red' looks my friend's 'red' but it doesn't matter
it only matters when perceptions come into play in things that should be objective, like law

 

I think our perceptions are based on the stuff we learned and how we learned them. And of course since they are perceptions they can change if one changes what he is learning and how he is learning it. Also I think religion affects our perceptions as well. Many things that influence perception....