To what extent may the subjective nature of perception be regarded as an advantage for artists but an obstacle for scientists?

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Bryan Vaz

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To what extent may the subjective nature of perception be regarded as an advantage for artists but an obstacle for scientists?

Perception on the Subjectivity of Perception

Everything that moves on Earth uses perception as the primary means of gaining knowledge. Humans are no different. Through the partially subjective nature of perception, we are subject to illusions, errors of perception, errors in judgment, emotions and personal and cultural bias. Science’s goal is to rise above this flaw and to achieve understanding from a universally valid and unbiased point. However, artists do not consider this a flaw because it allows them to take a personal point of view and therefore be original. In addition, artists strive to evoke emotions through their work, which can only be incorporated if the artist knows how perception can trigger emotions. Therefore, artists value the subjective nature of perception as a means to create an effective work of art, while scientists need to confer with others in order to overcome that subjectivity and give an objective account of reality.  

For a scientist, or social scientist, perception and reason are the foremost methods of gaining knowledge in their respective fields. Perception is the active, selective and interpretative process of recording the external world through sensory experiences. These characteristics of perception hamper the scientist’s ability to gain objective knowledge in their respective fields. However, the social scientist utilizes that interpretative process to determine the meaning or motive behind human actions.

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For the natural scientist, the scientific method is the principal method for learning about nature. Perception becomes of the utmost importance during the data collection and analysis stages. During these stages, the scientist uses his senses to collect knowledge about his experiment which can later be analyzed and published. Between collecting the knowledge and publishing there is a stage of interpretation of the data. Often scientists will form convictions about the knowledge before them, and will then use those convictions to form a conclusion to be published. The conclusion can then only be considered objective or scientific knowledge after others ...

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