If reality only exists on the level of perception, then is perception the only reality?

Answer 1

Perception is all we have to judge reality by.

Think about it

Answer 2

You are saying "if" here. You suggest to yourself that reality doesn't exist on the level of perception, in fact you might even go as far as to say reality doesn't exist at all. So, what do you think? Perception and reality are interchangeable words. Look at it this way:

"perception only exists on the level of reality, thus reality is the only perception." Do any of these statements get us anywhere is my question? The two arguments here are perception is the only reality and reality is the only perception. Both have the same result... where you find yourself now.

Answer 3

The answer is: Reality does NOT exist on perceptual level. As Ayn Rand, author and philosopher, would say: Check your premises. Now, take a look at all your questions with that in mind. Reality exists. How someone perceives it is another story but that doesn't change the fact that it's real. Those people who think they can walk through walls will most likely break their nose, the drivers on the wrong side of the road will eventually be involved in a head-on collision, and if one eats poison mushrooms, they will surely get sick. Your comment about education is very interesting... because students are now taught that there is no reality. The joke is on the educators because if they were right, they would be useless. Reality exists. You can choose to evade it but you can not avoid its consequences. Disavowal of reality is called mental illness.

Answer 4

Existence itself is empirical reality. The existence of your perceptions are the proof reality exists outside your perceptions, because they are perceptions "of something." That something is called "cognoscentum," which means the "object of perception." No cognoscentum, no perception.
So perception is subjective reality; cognoscenti are empirical reality.

Answer 5

Our perception is very limited. Light covers a big spectrum. We see only a small part of this spectrum. That is one example. You seem to say that discovery is the same as creation. I mean to say that something new isn't something that we just found. For you, something new was just created by us in our perception about it.

It isn't true. Perception is only the small parts of reality for us. The rest of reality waits for us to make the way to see it.

Answer 6

You are starting with a false assumption. Reality does not only exist on the level of perception. A is A. Seriously think about how you behave.......you do not behave as if reality exists only on the perceptual level. If you did, you would die.

Answer 7

There is not only one reality. Reality is based on a "personal"
perception, and you know how many people are around.

Answer 8

To Buddhists this is not so..may I provide an answer from a Buddhists perspective..? It may prove an interesting contrast to the other fine answers given..

To Buddhists, our perceptions are in fact the cause of an illusory reality..this is because as so many wise folk above have pointed out, this perception is a learned phenomenon...full of preconceived and often false ideas which we take as truth..we are deceived..let me explain...

Our perceptions tell us that we live in a permanence based reality, yet we all know that this is not so..yet even as we know the truth, we still rely on our perception in order to make sense of this environment..we are deceived..perhaps a simple exmple will suffice to explain this false, perceived reality and how this causes us to make false and unwise choices and decisions as a result.....take a pretty flower..

We see this prety flower and generally say to ourselves.."Oh, a pretty flower.." Do we not..?

A week later we see the same flower yet this time it has faded..we generally say.."Oh, how sad ..the flower has faded.." Is this not so..?

Our perceptions have deceived us...the true nature of the flower is to fade..yet we have perceived permanence in its nature..not only this, we have made a false decision about the sight of the faded flower...what false decision..? We decided that the sight of the faded flower was a sad sight...again..why see a sadness in a natural occuring phenomenon...?

Reality exists in its natural state...our perceptions are what deceive us about this reality, making us see what we want to see, as opposed to seeing what is actually there...

Perceptions are illusion..nothing more than this...Buddhists rightly ignore their perceptions for good reason...it takes a measure of effort to do so because these perceptions are very deeply ingrained, we are actually trained to be so deceived..and we are so trained from birth...

How else see War as a form of Peace, (Reminders of the Ministry of Truth in 1984) see Stockpiles of the most destructive weapons ever devised as a means to peace...peace can only be achieved if there are peaceful methods adopted to achieve it...not warlike methods to achieve it...how else can folks think that putting a gun to somebody's head and threatening to kill can be peaceful..? Perceptions...

A Buddhist....

Answer 9

No because there are multiple perceptions varied among people. So, reality is basically everyone's perception of the world.

Answer 10

Interesting. If we speak of the collective perception, then all we perceive is all there is. Hence, perception begets reality becoming, at least, the father of. Individually, given the premise, reality would be all we perceive and all everyone else perceives. No?