In my opinion, the “red-tinted glasses” is a symbol representing one’s perspective. Sophie was asked to put on the red-tinted glasses and was asked what she could see; evidently, everything was tinted red. As humans, we know now that the world is full of colour because we were born to see the world that way; however, imagine if everyone in the world was born with the red-tinted glasses, it would be quite obvious that everything we see would be red in colour. Now, without seeing the world in colour, we wouldn’t know just how beautiful it is, and would naturally assume that the world is red. Thus, the red-tinted glasses limit our perspective of the world and what we see.
Personally, I believe that human beings are actually born with these red-tinted glasses, not physically, but mentally. We tend to perceive and reason things in the way we want to and as Kant believed, we are born with innate reasoning. We use this reasoning and apply it to our everyday experiences, for example, when we meet new people, we would use these “glasses” to judge them. However, we judge them according to our liking and not stepping out to see the big picture, as a consequence, neglecting what the “real” truth is.
An example that would fit anyone would be optical illusion. As we look at the pictures, our eyes tell us “this is what you see” and by that, we believe what we see; but as we look again, a different picture comes up. This portrays the fact that we tend to believe things we see for the first time and yet, not questioning whether that is the real and whole picture. Therefore, showing that we only see things that interest us and not making the effort to dig deeper and to find out more.
A personal experience I had was meeting new people. During my younger years, I tend to judge people by their appearance and if they dressed or appeared in a way in which I disliked, I would categorize them in the “no friends group”. However, when I get the chance to meet them and know them, I realize that they are actually incredibly nice and fun people to be with. From then onwards, although I still instinctively judge people by their appearance, I like to get to know and chat to people first before placing my opinion on them.
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2 comments:
In a way, are you suggesting that these "glasses" are our, say, "sixth sense"? Our "conscience"? As, Kant describes? Does this mean you agree more with the rationalists because you believe human beings are born with reasoning?
I agree with you in a way that people are born their own conscience that sets them apart from others but I also think that experience shapes our conscience along the way so the "glasses" we begin with in life evolve and change as we grow.
Those "red-tinted glasses" of ours definitely limit our perspective of the world though, as you said. I think what we all need is for someone to come along and remove those "glasses" for us. Of course, being the stubborn humans we are, we never really want to be told what to do and that what we believe is wrong. Consequently and sadly, the majority of us will continue living our lives with our eyes and minds distorted, unable to see the world as it really is.
I do agree with you when you mentioned that the red-tinted glasses limit our perspective of the world and what we see. However, I don't quite agree that we are actually born with these red-tinted glasses. I believe we are not born with any glasses and our perspectives are completely open and clear to everything around us. I'd say it is the material world which puts on our glasses for us and the color is chosen by the environment which we have been brought up in and the experiences we have gone through.
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