Sense and Perception

Various definitions for the word “reality” exist, meant to describe fully its purpose and meaning for man’s understanding, as the word itself, as described philosophically, separates the viewing of things as they appear or can be perceived, from how they actually are in its true form. Specifically, the definition of the noun includes the state of things and spaces sometimes not see by the human eye, as we are not always able to comprehend history fully. Furthermore, it could be said from the previous definition that, because the word is so ambiguous and of general origin, that reality includes everything that surrounds man on a daily basis, not leaving out the past and future as well. By contrast the definition of existence is often restricted solely to one that has physical existence or a direct basis in it, as thoughts do in the brain. Reality itself and what each human being interprets by its definition, has often raised debates among philosophers, therefore presenting the following question: is there such a thing as a relation between each person’s reality and fiction, imagination as well as perception? If so, how do these relate with each other? Would stating there is no such thing as various realities, a close minded thing to say in the year 2012? Therefore taking into account the fact that many studies have shown how each human being experiences life and perceives its surroundings differently from others, thus preventing the existence of a single reality, as there are millions of us out in the world and therefore million different realities. The following essay will explore the various ways in which plural realities differ from each other, taking into account the statement pictured above and its further connections to topics such as justified true belief, ways of knowing, sight and optical illusions, gestalt principles and the story written by Jorge Luis Borges, “Funes, el memorioso”.

The theory of justified true belief states the various steps by which one should pass when having to prove if a piece of information is really true or false, further explaining that one should know the piece of information is true, consequently bringing up the following question: what is knowledge? And if there only exists one definition to the word, can we know that there are or aren’t various realities? The actual definition of knowledge makes us incapable of proving or associating the statement being discussed as it is the following: to believe that there are various realities and to logically know that there various realities, process by which you should sue reason and facts. Automatically, it becomes impossible to associate the statement with the theory of justified true belief, as people’s minds and brains work differently from each other and one cannot perceive the world as other do; another person’s view of reality can be so far off from what we believe is socially and scientifically true, that the individual is incapable