12th July 2007
Thursday
AWOL

Here to destress after reading some stuff that I thought I had already gotten over. And also because of the really screwed up rehearsal just now. Sigh.

People create their social reality based on their own perceptions and interpretations of the world around them.

Do you agree?

First, we need to look at the definition of perception.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, perception is the process of acquiring, interpreting, selecting, and organizing sensory information. The word perception comes from the Latin perception-, percepio, meaning "receiving, collecting, and action of taking possession, apprehension with the mind or senses."

Basically it means that perception is the process of understanding the information being transmitted to your brain from your sensory organs, referring to the sense of sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch. This is the process that evaluates the information and organises it into something comprehensible.

But can we trust the sensory information that we are receiving? Irish philosopher George Berkeley theorized that individuals cannot know if an object is, individuals can only know if an object is perceived by a mind. He stated that individuals cannot think or talk about an object's being but rather think or talk about an object's being perceived by someone; individuals cannot know any "real" object or matter "behind" the object as they perceive it, which "causes" their perceptions.

You are looking at an apple. Your senses tell you that the apple is red. Your senses tell you that the apple is solid and has a smooth surface. But to what extent is that information trustworthy? For all you know, the "apple" might be a plastic model used to depict how an apple is like. The apple we identified is an apple constructed out of the information from our senses. Thus, the apple is an idea constructed out of the information we have gathered.

How does the mind so readily constructs the idea that the object is an apple and it is red? It is because we have encountered so many red apples that we have come to a conclusion that an object with such a shape and colour is an apple. And it is a red apple. From past experiences, we also know that red apples are sweet. But there is no basis in that statement. We can easily identify the object's physical being. But we have no guarantees that what we know from past experience will apply in present and future cases.

Applying what we now know to the main topic for this thread, we can read it as "People create their impressions of the world based on their ideas." It is therefore safe to say that the world is different for everyone. Since every object in the world is based on individual unique ideas that are unique to each person, the world is perceived differently by everyone.

This perception of the world is based on past experiences, cognitive construal, religion, and society. Past experiences lead the mind to develop thinking patterns that directly affects the perception of the person.

Example: If you have never seen an apple. Now you see a blue apple. The next time you see an apple, it is also blue. And so is the apple you see on your third time. Based on your past experiences, you have come to a conclusion that all apples are blue. This is because you have never encountered any apples of other colours.

Society puts pressure on individuals, imposing a limitation as to how much the perception of the world can differ among individuals. Under this pressure, social norms are created. Social reality is created. People trapped in this society pressure are forced to go with the mainstream.

After understanding the components in deciding whether people create their social reality based on their percecptions and interpretations of the world around them, I take the stand of disagreeing with the statement.

Social reality is born not of one person. But a group of individuals with similar ideology that forms a basic "public opinion".