What is the cause of the differences in the way we perceive things?

Answer 1

We perceive things through our sense, sight, taste, listening, feeling. Then our ego interpret it or react emotion to it, before you perceive the fact from your senses.
Where the ego came from? From greed and clinging. If one can drop the ego, he will sense the truth, all the time.

Answer 2

We perceive the same thing or situation differently based on the "lens" of our past experience. Let's take death for example... If I have never lost someone close to me or that I love than I am going to view death in a very different way than someone who has lost a child or a spouse.

Another thing that affects how we perceive situations is how we process information or learn. For example, I am in a business meeting with my co-worker. I am an auditory learner so I am going to take in more of what I hear than what is going on in the room, however my co-worker who is a visual will read people's body language and the presentation of the information, not so much of what is being said. After the meeting we may both have two different, but accurate, stories about what happened in the meeting.

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Answer 3

The sophists believed it is determined due to experience. Naturally you may see a red apple different than me because I'm from Mississippi and you are from South Dakota. Some philosophers have thrown out the idea that we can perceive things simply because our sensory methods are not perfect. So this may explain why differences in senses between people exist is because we are not perfect otherwise we would all be the same and have the same perception of anything. This is just a stab from my limited philosophy education.

Answer 4

I think that differences in perception are caused by the fact that in life, everyone has different experiences. Even if people experience the same thing, it is still different.

My parents divorced, but their divorce was not exactly word for word, action for action, JUST like anyone else's. My experiences with certain children at certain ages, and my experiences with certain people at certain times are different than others.

I see things differently than many of my friends because I have experienced a less "cushy" lifestyle before moving to an area where most children are very priveleged. I was raised differently and those experiences cause me to think of life in a very different way.

Answer 5

There are many different factors that can influence how we percieve something. Conditioning, culture, religion, environment can all influence perception. Our own, personal likes and dislikes as well as our individual ethics, morals and values also influence our perseptions. then there is experience. We learn from our experience, and we project it onto the things we see, do hear. We color our perceptions with our experiences.
I amy go with you to a sappy, romancy movie and hate it while you just love it. Why? Because in my experience that kind of "happily ever after" doesn't happen, and my view is jaded. You, on the other hand are in love with a great guy, no fights, and you're on otp of the world. Your experience with romance has been all positive. Silly example, but its accurate, sort of.

Answer 6

A major stumbling block to answering this question is accounting and correcting for the differing ways in which we describe our perceptions.

Answer 7

Our previous experiences play a major role plus the way people are brought up. For example what you see as 'blue' I might see as 'light or dark blue'.

Answer 8

A large part of it is habit and thus conditioning. We adapt to our environment and tend to develop habits that seem useful. Our perception and thinking tend to go along with this.

Answer 9

How we are raised, who our parents are, annual income, religion, mental health, and where we live. All these tie into how we perseve things.

Answer 10

Cataracts of the soul.