Perception and Reality
A New Dynamism for Philosophy
Chapter 1. Perception and Reality
Key Questions.
- What are the central questions of philosophy?
- What are the main philosophical traditions?
- How do they address these questions and why have they failed?
- What is reality and of what does it comprise?
- How are living and conscious beings distinguishable from other material things there?
- Can we build knowledge of reality solely through sense experience?
- How does perception differ from sensation to give us access to reality?
- How do we reconcile the subjectivity of perception with an understanding of reality that is shared with others and the source of objective knowledge?
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Summary of Conclusions: Perception and Reality
Dynamism revives a tradition of process philosophy that is allied to a post-Einstein understanding of the Universe. Much philosophy still relies too heavily upon an assumption of stability in the material world.
Dynamism conceives the material as potential or actual discharges of energy that are recognisable and defined in terms of the scope of their influence. Living beings possess an agenda they strive to implement within reality. They seek and tolerate a range of outcomes within it. Concepts express the generalities they represent, and offer a means of characterising and understanding reality.
Conscious beings are distinguishable from other living things because they can influence the relationships between objects through a capacity for movement. Perception consequently has a spatial dimension. Reality is accessible to perception and consciousness is no longer confined within its own exclusive realm.
Consciousness operates compatibly within a reality in which perceived objects exist. They are accessible to consciousness, but exist beyond its domain. Their independence from consciousness derives from the influence they exert on each other and on their surroundings. Much philosophy has placed too much reliance upon experience as the source of knowledge.
Sensations are admittedly more complex than Empiricists and other experience-based philosophies have supposed. But they still cannot fulfil the role expected of them, and cannot furnish a foundation for perception.
Perceptions are not separable from their objects as sensations can be, so dynamism rejects the materialist view that there are material causes for all perceptions. Sensations often have material causes, but knowledge obtained through perception alone is necessary to establish this.
Dynamism does not seek to abolish experience altogether, but simply to recognise that private inner experience is a notion extracted or derived from a direct perceived contact with reality. The distinction between perception and the conditions of perception needs to be more emphatically asserted.
The distinction between reality and its appearances similarly has to be more central. Perception is possible and knowledge is obtained under true conditions of perception. Locating these lends a pragmatic dimension to experience.
In our efforts to optimise the effectiveness of our endeavours, we discover and exploit relationships within reality. In a dynamically conceived reality these coincide with its true nature.
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