A big thanks to Mr. Alchin for his very compelling lecture on the 25th and an additional thank you to Grade 12s for being a very receptive and attentive audience.
A few follow up points from the questions students asked …..
- Mathematics and perception. What role does individual perception play in Mathematics as an area of knowledge? Well, Descartes (the father of modern philosophy) “The senses deceive from time to time, and it is prudent never to trust wholly those who have deceived us even once.” As a result Descartes wanted to build a system of knowledge based upon reasoning that was not dependent on the senses. Descartes was inspired by the work of the Greek Mathematician Euclid, this followed a method where first principles were established and then built upon (foundationalism).
- Perception and Religious Knowledge Systems. The issue of apparitions of Holy figures is a difficult one to discuss. Many studies (here’s one) have used social contexts, such as famine, to explain how the Mary Mother of Jesus may appear to very real to individuals or small groups. The suggestion is that individual perception is changed by stress or social influence. This is a plausible argument but is too often very easily dismissive of what is a very real and personally moving experience.
- Perception and Indigenous Knowledge Systems. The West is an increasingly sterile world. In the U.S. the consumer unwittingly eats chickens that have been washed in chlorine removing any sense of previous life. This dulling of our perception of the natural world is in response to our pollution of it. We take antihistamine to deal with pollen, (hay fever is more prevalent in the cities) we spray febreze in our homes to induce the smell of alpine meadows. Compare the sensory life of the West with this short passage describing the indigenous experience.
“Each part of the environment has its own unique ancestral patterns that can be sensed in the speed of the currents, the smell of the ocean, the sounds of water movements, and the visible residue of water-marks left on the rocks.” From Cultural Survival - Language and sense perceptionThe inextricable link between sense perception and language may be worth exploring from the point of view of ‘how can we know’ when we cannot trust our senses. Our senses are individual therefore the world is a subjective sensory experience. Language: The Cultural Tool is a book by Daniel Everett. The book tells the story of the native speakers of Pirahã, in the Amazon lowland jungle, who have no words for left or right, they use the same term for blue and green, and their definitions of red, black and white turn out to be similes, rather than dedicated words. If you want to see a similar version of this phenomenon watch experiments (9) carried out in Africa with the Himba tribe.
- Schizophrenia and hallucinations; Tactile hallucinations are sensations of being touched. Sometimes these will occur when there is nobody else around but sometimes they occur when the person is in a crowded place such as a bar or tube train. Often they will have a sexual dimension and the person will feel that they are being touched in intimate places of their body which can lead to conflict with the people around them.Olfactory hallucinations are hallucinations of smell and taste and are less common in schizophrenia. The person may smell burning or sulphurous smells or smell gas and feel compelled to report it to the gas company. This can happen frequently several times a day. One young man used to smell cannabis being smoked in public places and would call the police to report it.1 These kinds of hallucinations may also involve a heightened awareness of their own or other people’s body odour.Hallucinations of taste are also very troublesome. This often involves the person perceiving a metallic taste in their drinks or food. If the person is also suffering with paranoid delusions they can then combine both of these ideas and conclude that they are being poisoned by the person preparing their food. This may result in the patient refusing all food and becoming seriously emaciated.16It should be noted that schizophrenia is not the only condition that causes hallucinations. Recovering alcoholics often experience visual hallucinations and extreme tiredness will very often cause auditory ones. Certain street drugs will also cause hallucinations and there are many organic conditions that can affect brain function and cause hallucinations
