The Uncertainty of Perception

A detailed Summary of The Uncertainty of Perception

"Seeing conditions what we believe...believing conditions what we see." This observation is the core of society and the substratum of human behavior. Psychological studies have reinforced and proven theories involving the conditioning of humans. However, failure lies in the attempt to assign the causes to a single concept. Among the vast influences for human behavior is our tendency to see what our beliefs would have us to, and hence, believe only what we happen to see. Obviously, my previous statement only obfuscates our attempt to comprehend the intended notion. In order to attain total understanding of the profound thought the quotation develops, I will attempt to analyze and apply it to my experience and knowledge of conditioning. Primarily, I need a concise interpretation of the idea. The contextual definition of see is "to perceive by the eye." Unfortunately, sight, is only one of five senses. Even worse, the images we see through our eyes are statistically only one-millionth of our actual reality. Therefore, anything we see is not the entire being or actuality of the world around us but instead a finite perception (by means of vision) of the universe. The technical definition of t

"Well, now that we have seen each other," said the Unicorn, "if you believe in me, I'll believe in you. Is that a bargain?" writes Lewis Carroll in his piece, Through the Looking-Glass. The situation of the Unicorn and Man appears to be that neither believed in the other because they had never seen the other species, thus illustrating the age-old slogan "Seeing is believing." In today's modern society that maxim is evident. Due to the Unicorn's discovery of Man, the Unicorn can now hold a belief that man does indeed exist. Does the man not feel the same? The Unicorn had never before sensed Man and when it saw one, all of the rumors it had heard about man before suddenly transformed from speculation into truth, and that certainty is now accepted in the Unicorn's mind. David Hume best described the relation of what we see and believe when he said the following about his "Bundle of Perceptions" theory: "What we call a mind is nothing more than a heap or collection of different perceptions, united together by certain relations, and supposed, though falsely, to be endowed with a perfect simplicity and identity." Hume's idea is that our mind is the storage of the "Bundle of Perceptions" we experience everyday and from these we form a unity or belief. These relations prove how "Seeing conditions what we believe."

Although our perceptions are finite, belief plays a major role in what we see as well. Marcus Aurelius said it best when he proclaimed that "Our life is what our thoughts make it." In other words, as humans we subconsciously act how we think we should. Our actions are based upon our beliefs. We do what we think we ought to. If the subconscious can co

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1133
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

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