Perception Vs Reality

Perception and reality are two different things. Normally whatever we perceive we consider it to be real. In philosophy, we question everything. And we can see that our perception is not as trustworthy always as we assume it to be. A very simple experiment can be done by anyone at home. Take three buckets of water, one with warm water, one with chilled water and the last one with normal water at room temperature. Put your right hand in warm water and left hand in the chilled water for some time together. Then move them both together into the bucket with water at room temperature. The right hand will tell your brain that the water is cold while the left hand will experience it as warm.

Different People, Different Perception

The above image also is a classic example where several blind people try to find out the reality of an elephant by touching it. Based on which body part they touched they all perceived elephant in a different way. One who touched the trunk thought an elephant is similar to a hose. One who touched the leg thought it is like a tree trunk. One who got hold of tail thought of it as a rope and so on.

So, our perception is relative whereas reality must be absolute. We have five senses of perception, viz. eyes, ears, nose, tongue and skin. When we suddenly enter a dark from bright sunlight, our eyes fail. Same is the case with ears if it is exposed to some loud noise like fire crackers. Tea doesn’t taste sweet after having chocolates. And imperfection of skin was already seen in above experiment.

Then how do we investigate for reality? The answer is using intellect. To carry out our investigation further, we must understand the limitations of our tools. Our minds can also lead us into the wrong direction if not being carefully watched by the intellect. Philosophy turns into imagination when lacks backing by logic.