Philosophy-4 Flashcards
Memory, Perception & Imagination
(past) (present) (future)
Human mental activities that belong to the dimension of time.
Sensation
Knowledge obtained through the interaction with the external world.
Perception
The process by which humans interpret and organize sensation to produce a meaningful experience of the world.
Perception VS Sensation
●Sensation is the immediate and unprocessed stimulation of the 5 sensory receptors.
●Perception involves further processing if sensory input.
(Both are important to seperate because they are part of one continuous process)
Aristotle
Made a distinction between sensation and perception, unlike some philosophers.
Intellectualists VS Gestalts
●The Intellectualists considered perception as a mental construction of and judgments on objects.
●The Gestalts (i.e: form of an object in german), considered sensation and perception to be inseparable and that the whole firm of an object is given to us intuitively and immediately within matter.
Problematic of Perception
What is the nature of perception? Is it a mental construction and judgement on objects? Or does the whole form of the object precede its parts?
The Intellectualist Theory
According to them:
●perception is more developed than sensation. (ex: the color blue is not perceived as a bare quality but as a blue sea or sky).
●Descartes believed that a human is made up of an immaterial thinking mind, and of a material non-thinking body. Hence, our ideas of objects do not resemble objects (because of varying space and depth), and that the sum of judgments is perception but not sensation.
●Alain believed that an object is thought and not sensed. (ex: we can predict that a cube has 6 faces even though we can only see 3).
●illusions are errors of judgment (we predict something that cannot be sensed).
☆☆☆ Therfore, perception is a mental construction and organization of the sensible parts, memory enables making a judgement about the parts that we have previously sensed, while imagination enables previous expectations of what will be recognized.
Criticism of the Intellectualist Theory
Since it is difficult to distinguish properly between between perception and sensation, this theory could be criticized for relying heavily on the mind and ignoring the role of his senses (essential role) and the form of an object.
●in addition to ascribing meaning only with our thoughts using our mental faculties, which undermines the importance of perception.
●Also, Descartes dualism has failed to resolve the mind-body dilemma–> the extended material body should not be ignored, neither in carrying the senses as parts of the body, nor in the effect of its position within the environment.
The Gestalt Theory
●New point of view that states that all perception is a perception of a whole, we do not use out intellect to group different isolated sensations–> sensations are passed to our senses already grouped into a whole structure.
●according to them, perception is not distinct from sensation. (Form is given without the intervention of intelligence).
●the principle of “good form”, I don’t open my eyes to a disarray of colors and lines, but to a world of objects.
●Gestalt psychologists focused on the idea of “grouping” when seeing an object. Based on these laws: proximity, similarity, continuity and closure.
●illusions are not errors, but can rather be understood within the whole form.
Criticism of the Gestalt Theory
●does not provide a relationship between sensation and perception–> the form of an object cannot fully impose on the perceiver if it is not experienced by the 5 senses.
●does not discuss the role of the Conscious in the process of perception.
●neglects the role of the individual: his unconscious tendencies, past, habits, memories, desires, values…
●requires the intellectualist theory to shed light on the importance of the mind in perception. (Incomplete).
Conclusion on Perception and both Theories
Both Theories have supplied modern psychology with insights into the process of perception:●Descartes’ dualism separated the mind and body in both their function and nature–>focused on mental activity over the object.
● Gestalt Theory helped us acknowledge that objects are passed into human senses already grouped in structures–>focused on the object over the subject.
Both of these work hand in hand to explain the nature of perception. In addition to these Theories, we should also consider the other factors that nurture one’s perception (culture, values, motives, tendencies, conscious and unconscious).
Husserl (a phenomenologist)
Believed that “All consciousness is the consciousness of something.”
Hence, an interplay between subject and object is necessary to understand the world.
