Is perception reality?

Question

how can you ever be sure if what your seeing is really there? most people would think "uhh.. duh? because its infront of me and i am looking at it." well insane people see and feel things that arent there... how can we be sure that the world we experience is not just a figment of our imaginations??

Answer 1

Perception is YOUR reality. It cannot be said that it applies to everyone else.

[add] The basis of what we perceive may have a root existence, but our perception filters this through our experiences and can alter the nature of what is being observed.

Answer 2

I think perception is reality to a greater extent than we all realize. It's only becoming more apparent in the media age. The staged photo-op is becoming perfected to a science. Instant pop "stars" are created solely by media exposure and not due to any talent on their part.

The tricky thing is trying to define reality. Whether or not there can be said to be a dimension of reality independent of perception, or if reality is and can only be perception. It's an epistemological question that has been debated without answer since at least far back as the ancient Greeks.

What's so difficult about the question is the fact it's not even clear as to how one would go about establishing whether or not perception is reality. Is everything we know known to us though perception? If so, then we could never get away from that perception filter.

For all practical purposes that would mean that the only knowable reality is reality known through perception, and any speculation as to reality beyond perception would be forever beyond the bounds of human knowledge. That wouldn't necessarily rule out something existing outside of human perception, but would we qualify something like that as real? It gets ever more tangled the deeper you go...

Answer 3

That we are perceiving something is certainly real. But it could always be 1. a dream or 2. that we are in a Matrix type situation (classically called being a Brain in a Vat or BIV). Or it could be the brain imagining, as you said, a perception which is not really happening. So no, we can't ever be sure and bravo to you for realizing that. Most people can't stand the idea and so deny it.

Answer 4

Ever notice how happy people make you happier sad people vice versa?
How when you are in a good mood you notice people on the street smile at you and most people you meet seem happy?

As you say some people are "insane" because there perception is so powerful so I ask: If perception is that powerful maybe perception IS reality?

Anything and everything is YOUR perception of reality - and whoever has the strongest perception of reality controls the reality!
The most successful and powerful people are capable of bending reality to their will - believe me!

Answer 5

Your perceptions are A reality, but they are not the ONLY reality.

A blind person, for example, cannot see. His other perceptions may agree completely with yours, but you have a percept that he does not.

And so it is for you. You probably cannot sense electromagnetic fields as many fish do, nor infrared like snakes, nor can you hear ultrasonic frequencies like dogs, nor many, many, many other realties that we KNOW are there because we can build instruments to detect them. The worlds that you see and hear and touch are only a small fragment of what is around you.

Do not doubt what little information you have. What you are seeing is what you see. There can be zero doubt about that. The only question is what those sights MEAN.

Something is providing that vision. It may not be what you think it is. But it IS something. It may be a physical object you are seeing, or it may be a chemical imbalance in your brain. It is in no circumstance NOTHING.

Answer 6

ok, I have been shamed for my answer to your last question by a young man that made a very good point, why criticize and discourage someone who is asking questions about the world, even if they are questions you answered for yourself a long time ago. My apologies. Is perception reality? for all practical purposes it has to be, albeit that all perception and therefore subsequent knowledge (and I believe all knowledge is indeed subsequent to perception) are of course relative.. You can question existence, and it can be interesting sometimes to theorize about what is real and what is not but for the purposes of living, it is necessary to make a leap of faith as it were in order to function as human beings. I recommend Jean Paul Sartre's Being and Nothingness, or read up on ontology, epistemology and metaphysics in wikipedia.org

Answer 7

The point is that you are only YOU. What exists for you , exists. You are only yourself therefore everything you expereince is real.

Reality is entirley relative. Since the only thing you can compare the world around you with , is your experiences. And these come from the world around you. Then the world around you is as real as anything can be.

The point is that wether or not the world is a figment of our imaginations it is real and tangible. So does it really matter?

I hope this makes sense.

Answer 8

Perception happens when we receive stimulus created by the external world. This happens through nerve impulses from our sensory organs. Perception can be synthesized by stimulating the brain electrically, and perception happens when we dream as well. Now, reality is another question. If you study quantum physics, reality is merely an energy field. All matter boils down to tiny subatomic particles that are not really physical, but charged energy.

Answer 9

This is the age old question of idealism vs. realism. Realism has been pretty much refuted and even scientists will now admit that every object we encounter is "represented" by our brains as the objects that we see. What is "really" there is a cloud of energy. Objects, in our everyday lives are mental entities. Something; the cloud of energy you call the table, would exist without you there to notice it, but it would not be a table. The table in that sense is an idea.

Answer 10

Perception is not reality. Perception is cognizance of "something." Only the something is existential reality, but it takes the epistemological processes of the mind to determine what the essence of the something is. It is that essence that is the reality.