The Uncertainty Of Perception Essay Research Paper — страница 2

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uncertainty of what we see is increased even more when we apply the knowledge that our vision is indeed limited. Doubt runs through our minds when the painstaking reality that the same beliefs we have encompassed into our lives are now known to have based on our unreliable vision. This same doubt forces us as humans to make ourselves reinforce our beliefs by spreading them and forcing them on others. Krishnamurti recognized this human flaw and concluded, “The constant assertion of belief is an indication of fear.” But why do we believe? Tertullian responded to that in his work De Carne Cristi with Credo quia impossible, or “I believe because it is impossible.” What Tertullian means is that knowing is impossible when our perceptions are confined so he must believe in order

to continue. Like Tertullian, I have to be content with what appears to be my reality. However, I enter an endless dilemma when I perceive something that is unrecognizable to my beliefs, or something that coincides with what I want to see. Hence, I begin to let my beliefs control my vision and what I see is no longer actuality but instead what I’d feel comfortable in observing. Ralph Waldo Emerson exclaimed the very thought when he said, “People see what they are only prepared to see.” I share the belief with Emerson that it is significant to know and attempt to not believe. Ironically, Emerson also stated “I hate quotations. Tell me what you know.” So I shall. Fortunately, I have been blessed with a walking, living, example of conditioning (other than myself); my one

and a half-year-old little brother, Zachary. Recently, he became violently ill with a form of the flu. Unfortunate for him, he regurgitated most foods due to their incompatibility with the virus in his stomach. Zack loved foods such as yogurt and eggs, but when he was fed them when it was not known he was sick and his stomach disposed of them orally, a bad connotation was then associated with those food products and Zack will no longer eat them. He has the belief that they will make him vomit and views the food as “bad.” As sad as it may seem, that is everyday conditioning that we are exposed to. With the pragmatic process of “Seeing conditions what we believe [and] believing conditions what we see” coded into my brain, I strive to know and not believe in order to

decrease my perceptive uncertainty. I will always strive for knowledge and not belief as I live by the words of Socrates as quoted by Plato in his Apology; “The unexamined life is not worth living.”