Questions
Okay people, I'm curious. I've been taking my Perception class for about 6 weeks now and it's raised some interesting questions. I have some opinions about some of it but I'd like to get some perspectives from other people, so I thought I'd ask you guys some of the questions the prof has been asking us.
If a branch cracks in the forest and no one is there to hear the crack - does it still make a crack? Bear in mind, this is not some arbitrary "sound" but specifically the sound that humans hear when a branch breaks.
If you stare at a person or an object long enough, you will probably see its "aura" - a soft light that surrounds the person/object in its complementary colour. You see it, right? But somehow you distinguish that it's not real, while the object/person is. Why isn't it real?
So I guess the big question is - if all perception takes place inside your head, as it must - how do we know that what we are seeing or smelling or touching or hearing is real or even accurate? Consider a schizophrenic man, whose auditory cortex actually activates when he hears voices, even though everyone else will tell him those voices aren't real. If reality is a result of our perception what makes them less real than his kitchen table or his dog?