A1 Question #4
I've mentioned several times during class that what we perceive as reality is actually a recreation of "reality" by our senses and our brain. In other words, what we think is real, might not be real at all! So I guess my question to all of you is how does this make you feel? How confident can we feel that the world we experience is actually how the world is? How would we test something like that? Is our "reality" then all that matters in the long run even though our reality might be completely different from another persons? And since all of us experience the world through our own reality, making this very subjective, is there an actual real world out there that we are unable to perceive? Or is reality subjective to the one perceiving? In other words, what is real to us is real, period. There is no need to consider what is actually real because what we perceive is it, nothing more.
Wow, just writing this question has me boggled as well. You can get a serious headache pondering all of this stuff. Anyway, have fun sharing your thoughts about this subject. Don't feel like you need to answer every question.
posted by Mr. Fong | 4:52 PM
27 Comments:
Holy psychology. This is the most intense question. One thought that I had while reading this comment is can we trust our brains? With such things like repression and bad memory in general can we trust what our mind displays? Then furthering that what we see is affected by life's experiences and how we process the things that we see. Then our mind will fill in colors and different things for our vision. This kind of reminds me of a parents of somethings in fiction that lies to a younger person to protect them.
In a sense our mind could just be lying to us all the time so that we don't have frequent breakdowns. Protecting us from how things really look and then in turn protecting itself. Good self defense technique if you think about it. Tricking it's host to stay alive and not giving us a way to be able to test it out. Or does this quality make our brains traitors or a protector?
On the subject of the testing, I don't think there would be a way unless we make all new technology and have billions of dollars. All the tests would have to be pretty intense because if they were simple tests the brain would just fill in the non normal things. Like in class when Kaysen...Kayson...Caysen... The guy who sits in front of me did the test with the colored paper behind his head with Mr. Fong singing beautifully in the back ground. The papers were black then the second his cones picked up the color his brain simply filled it in right after.
I think that in the end our reality is the only thing that matters. If it's real to us and we are fine with that why make everything wig out by adapting to someone else's reality?
Yay psychology.
its so true... how can you really trust your brain to know what is actually there? After watching movies like "A beautiful mind," I've always thought, what if what I am seeing right now.. isn't really there?
This is a super deep question... how can we trust our brains to know what is really there? Is anything really real?
I guess i've kinda turned around the question by talking about "A Beautiful Mind," because what the guy is always seeing is stuff that isn't really there... his brain is making it all up.
What if everything we see isn't real? That just blows my mind... (ha...)
I guess we just have to trust our brains- which goes back to the original question: is the world we experience how the world really is?
Now I really want to go watch "A Beautiful Mind"...
Dear Mr. Fong,
You think too much. Ha ha! Umm.. these are deep but you definately have made me think a lot! And right after the ACT.. thanks. So I guess the question that really stood out to me is, "Is there a real world out there or is this just pur perception of a real world?" something like that. I think that there is a real world out there and we are in it. I believe that we are getting our perception of a real world from this real world we live in. If that makes sense?? In the end this is all real. And sometimes that is a hard concept for us to grasp.
Honestly this makes me just really confused. I cannot really even comprehend this question. I do not believe that this is true. I think that it is real. If it was not though, then everything we experience would really not be what we think it is. I guess I will never know and it will be a mystery!
its a pretty good question! my answer would have to be that reality is all completely perception. we all see the same things differently, even though they're the same things. This is because of how our brains work. our thought processes have a big impact on how we interpret our experiences, people in our lives, everything really!!!! it adds a whole new level of confusing into psychology! no two people are the same. no two people think the same. we all interpret so differently that some would say there's no way to really tell. i think finding the similarities is the key to dertermining reality
Dang, well... i think that we can only make the best of what we have with our own perceived reality. None of use will ever really know what the true reality of reality is but just be the best we can be and enjoy it. Orrrr you can kill yourself and find the truths to all things :)
Dang it blows my mind just thinking about it, just to think if my existence is controlled by others greater than me or if im in a dream similar to the movie inception is crazy. I think this question puts people to doubt but in my personal opinion it all depends on your beliefs and for what ever reason if this world that we habitat is real or not i wouldn't care because i live in it and i wouldn't mind some extraterrestrial or weird situation. I think each individual has its own reasoning and beliefs for that reason yes reality varies. I think if you really get into discovering or trying to get a solution to stuff similar as the one Mr.Fong addressed you would get really mental ill just say live within your boundries.
In a personal standpoint if you look at it that is correct. Everyone's reality is different so you have to wonder, is any of them correct? Or is it just perception and no one is right? These questions have been asked for centuries i believe. Everything around shapes our perception and if we grew up rich we expect everything, right now. If we grew up poor we know we need to work for our money and for personal pride as well. Bottom line? No perception is wrong or right so don't try to make it that way.
Hmmmm....In the spirit of Mr. Fong's proud chinese heritage, I would like to share a chinese philosopher's musings that have always intrigued me relating to what reality truly is. "Once upon a time, I, Chuang Chou, dreamt I was a butterfly, fluttering hither and thither, to all intents and purposes a butterfly. I was conscious only of my happiness as a butterfly, unaware that I was Chou. Soon I awaked, and there I was, veritably myself again. Now I do not know whether I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly, or whether I am now a butterfly, dreaming I am a man." I think Zhuangzi really hit it on the bamboo nail here. The fact is that none of us know if we are truly experiencing reality, or if this is all a paradoxical maze set up by some "architect" similar to Ariadne in Inception. The things that we hold to be the most fundamentally obvious about our everyday experiences may not even be real. To me this is a frighteningly exciting concept. I think that a fundamental distrust in what we think is clearly established, in the truths we think we know based upon our own unique perspectives is necessary in order to discover the underlying and elusive truth to all things, if such a truth does indeed exist. When we become enclosed in our own separate concepts of "reality", we tend to shut ourselves off from possibly more enlightened ideas that we could never experience within our own, limited perspective. I think that having an "open mind", or allowing ourselves to incorporate other people's unique "realities" into our own understanding of what truth really is, is the best way to ensure that we don't get too bogged down by what our different worlds espouse as truth. After all, we may all just be butterflies...(albeit with pretty twisted dreams - Charlie Sheen's butterfly must be out of his mind.)
Wow i really do have a headache now! I have actually thought about this before. I believe that we see the world in a different perspective than others. I have no idea how much different the world is to different people, but i don't think we all see things in the exact same way. I also don't know if i can trust my brain. I mean i think i can, but that doesn't mean i should.
I think the what we perceive is real. The fact that everyone sees and feels the same things, leads me to think it must be real.
Wow this question is insane. Really makes you think! But once you really think deeper, you realize that it would be pretty crazy if the whole world was lying to each other and they all see something different but claim they see the same things. Does that make sense? But then again, what if there isn't any other people at all? Just you? And you created this world in your head? Ah gosh. Well let me just say it will SUCK if that's true! But I honestly do not believe it is. Maybe my brain just can't comprehend this sort of thing. But that's my opinion!
After learning about this in class, reading this post, and observing the world a little more. It makes me realize just how much of the world is based on opinion. To me it sounds really scary, but at the same time I find it interesting to see different peoples opinions. How can we test it? Well perhaps its one of those type of things that you just can't break down into simple numbers and elements. This sounds weird but once in a while the thought comes up of are we just in some elaborate video game dealing with life and we'll come out of it and go on with something else. Yes I know it is a very strange thought.
That was one really intense question, i won't lie! Our minds are one of the most hardest things to comprehend and because we can't completely understand how it works in correlation with the brain, i am not surprised that our mind can display and perceive other things..then other people.
It really does make you wonder if what you are really looking at is real or not. :)
I think that whether the world we're living in is really real or not should not account for anything. Our reality is our reality. Bringing up an AMAZING movie (Inception) you see what happens to Cobb's wife while they're in Lymbo. At first, she knew that it was all just a dream, but after being there for 50 years, it became her reality. It was her life and it was all she knew. For all we know, we could be dreaming right now, but so what? If you're happy with your reality, why think about changing it? Reality is all relative to the perceiver.
I agree with what everyone else has said, by saying that it is a weird perspective to think from. The world could have completely different elements that we wouldn't even know about if this was possibly true. However, I also agree with Joe that what we perceive is real. We would probably be able to tell if it wasn't. This is just my opinion though. :)
We each perceive our different realities because of how our brains process the information that we receive, that is our own personal reality. Just like how we all look different, we all perceive things differently. If people did not perceive things differently, creating their own realities, i believe that diversity in our world would be destroyed. According to the cognitive school of psychology our thoughts become us. If our reality is in direct relation to our thoughts, which I believe it is, and each of us perceives things differently, than our thoughts shape our realities which in turn shapes who we are. Your personal reality of the world shapes who you are in many ways. If everyone perceived the same reality, than everyone would have much closer environments, and thereby closer thought processes, which would dissolve, to a point, our individuality.
Confidence in our reality being what the world really is, may seem important, but is it? I don't believe so. our reality is THE reality as far as we are concerned. while others have their realities our reality takes in theirs and converts it to our own (wow that was really confusing so ill try again). Others realties are like different languages, our reality translates theirs to our own, their outward expressions of their perceived realities are impressed upon our own in a slightly shifted way. people do not truly need to understand other peoples realities.
Last year when I was in Mr. Carpenter's regular US History class, on the very first day of class, we tried to determine what exactly history is. We used a collision between two cars at a stoplight to help us determine it. There were several different accounts of the crash by the victims, the witnesses, and those who arrived at the scene later. In the end, we decided that the exact, unbiased history of the crash was the perceptions of all those involved in the accident (and perhaps even some who weren't involved at all) combined. I believe that history and reality are very similar, and that the only difference is that history has already happened, and reality is always happening. So reality, in my opinion, could perhaps be defined as a combination of the perceptions of every being all over the world.
I think that we all have our own version or reality, but that is the reality that we are supposed to see and know. I think our senses are unique to each individual which may alter our perception on reality.
It's a tough question, and it does give me a headache. But I think everyone does interoperate things differently. So if if see something or believe I see something happen a certain way, the person 10 feet away may have a totally different point of view. So, who's right and who's wrong with what they see or think they saw? No one knows, in my opinion. I think if something is scary and traumatizing then our brain might push it back or alter what happened so it doesn't worry you anymore. Our brains are very smart and I personally believe our brains want the best for us. So if it takes lying to us to make us feel better, it will.
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Reality is our own perception of the world based on our experiences and what we see.Our experiences influence how we perceive the world individually. For example we can all be watching the same movie and at the end some may like it and other may not. And thats how its going to be because everyone is different! And everyone believes in their own things.
Whether or not this world and how we perceive it is real doesn't really matter to me. Because the way I see it, is live life to its fullest no matter what. This is my reality, and its a decent one. If we believe its our reality and we don't know of anything different why change it? Reality is subjective to the perceiving, I think that what's real for one person may not be real for another person. We all have different perceptions, we don't know who's right and who's not. So I believe we can all just be fine with the fact that our own reality is what we perceive.
Well to me knowing that everything we are perceiving right now could not be real or that we just think what we are living in right now is a reality a little bit can be scary. Knowing that things happen and they could not be real your just perceiving them as real makes life not seem real. Although it must be real because it is the only thing that we know so therefore it must be we are living in a real world experiencing real and not real experiences? Anyways it matter who you are and what you are doing because if you loose track of this you could loose track of your whole reality and world according to what the world is like if it is not real or not. That's a comforting thought. NOT! So just perceive things in a real fashion so you don't get confused or lost like i am now at the end of reading all these posts....
I believe that it is real. Our minds are very complex and we can almost imagine it not being real, but that's when we start to trick ourselves by thinking to much. I believe the world is different to everyone depending on their perspectives but that doesn't make it an unreal world. Just like if you and a color blind person were looking at the color red, it's the same color, they just see it differently through their mind.
I believe that it is real. Our minds are very complex and we can almost imagine it not being real, but that's when we start to trick ourselves by thinking to much. I believe the world is different to everyone depending on their perspectives but that doesn't make it an unreal world. Just like if you and a color blind person were looking at the color red, it's the same color, they just see it differently through their mind.
I find it very hard to believe that everything thing that I perceive is true. I will swear that I have seen or heard something while roaming around my house, but I have to ask myself if it was real. What about anything I actually see? Is something I perceive actually something else different than what it is? It is just confusing to think about really because you can believe that what you perceive is true or false.
>>writing stuff late at night is not fun.
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