Is there a thing such as reality?

Few propositions are factual in content in the world, as supposed to the many truths shared by different communities. Truth is mostly known as subjective. When individuals agree upon the interpretation and the experience of a particular event, it can be known as the truth to those who agreed. This is known as the consensus reality.  With the use of our senses we choose our own reality and our own beliefs. Our main five senses are the guiding lines of our reality and what we observe; these are not the only senses. Senses such as pain, temperature and sense of balance are also called kinesthetic senses. As we rely on our senses since it seems usual to consider what the senses illustrate as truth. Empiricists also see this as knowledge of the world.

Senses make use of illusion and perception to show the truth we want to believe our selves.  One of these is vision. By the use of optical illusions we can notice that the mind sees what it wants to see. We can not say that we describe a certain object the way because we understand the three dimensionality of space and the objects in built in these, or because we learn it from experience. E.g. when we have seen such an object in our past, when we see this again we can describe it perfectly because it is part of the memory. Therefore it would be more likely that we describe objects, or colors or anything else from previous experience .In some cases our description could be influenced by our culture. E.g. the illusion of an old/young woman, where we maybe see the old lady because for example the style of clothing.  When we do not know the object we are likely to say that it is “non-existing”.

Not only the visual perception is used, but also touch is used to create your own reality. Children and infants specially need physical contact. Touching produces a physiological benefit in stimulating certain brain chemicals. Touch is used as perception arising from the 18th century, where “’ Royal Touch’ could cure scrofula, a form of tuberculosis”. This is based on believe and trust. E.g. a pill containing no medicine will help because it is perceived as a medicine.

One of the most perceiving senses is the nose. The powers of scents are there to evoke strong feelings through the odour signals traveling by unique pathways to special destinations to the brain. The limbic processes emotions and gut reactions, causing a quick response. It also plays a role in storing and recalling memories. Experiments have been done to any extend, e.g. where children have to close their eyes and smell what the scent is. When children know the scent, they can describe it from memory and hence define it as a particular scent such as peppermint, butter et cetera. When we do not know the scent we can not define them as ‘existing’ and there for not part of the ‘reality’.

Last but not least; sound. Also this plays an important role to the perception and what we consider real. The sound is heard in the temporal lobes. Our brain interprets the multitude of sound signals we receive, comparing the sounds with each other and grouping them in a sequence. Our nerve cells can decide whether or not to pass on a given signal. The brain is used therefore as a filtering machine. Making not all existing sounds exist in our minds.

Without consciously knowing we block sounds, images and scent. If we do not know what we consider “existing” and what we can describe as non-existing we can not define reality. Reality is a concept of beliefs and knowledge. Because beliefs and knowledge differs for each person we can not say that reality is the same for each individual. It will be an everlasting discussion what reality is, and till which extend it exists.

Further Bibliography

Information out the handouts on: Perception with the 5 senses