Nature of Logic and Perception - PHL251.

Nature of Logic and Perception

Why do we each see people and situations so differently? Why do other people see things as I see them? Why is there fighting that occurs because people do not see eye to eye? Perception, it seems to me, is a rather tricky phenomenon and we need to take time to look at it very closely. I have to ask myself, what are my perceptions? They seem to be my points of view, what I consider to be important. My beliefs, opinions and assumptions come from what I perceive to be true.

Our lack of awareness of how perception operates can lead us to misunderstand and misjudge other's ideas and behavior. Are we generally aware of the forces and motives that lie behind our own behavior? My behavior stems form what I perceive as truth. If other's perceptions were exactly like mine, I think we could live peacefully with each other.

However, it is obvious that people agree on only a few things, and differ on so many issues; on personalities, on motives we assign and on interpretations we give to words. Then the problem comes in when you think you are more right than another and they disagree with you. As we know, these disagreements can lead to verbal fights, and to closing the doors of communication.

Our perceptions about ourselves come from images we have accumulated over time. We also have accumulated images about people around us. These images have their roots in out inner private world of reality that started in childhood. We can each look back and see the modifications, but the fact remains that a private world as an individual is "reality". The meaning of reality and perception is often extremely different. Reality is the actuality of things, what is...