The “red-tinted glasses” mentioned in chapter 25 is a metaphor that justify on how we perceives the world. Sophie was asked to wear the red tinted glasses and she was told to explain what she could see. Of course, everything she sees became red. By this, it emphasis on how we perceive the world. Every living thing has a different perspective of the world.
Everyone has a different perspective as we all have a different viewpoint which is based on our nationality, religion, culture and the environment we live in. The red tinted glasses are an example that changes the way we see things. If we were to born with these glasses, we would think that everything is red as we learn and experience it through life. However, if we are not born with these colored glasses, it would only be our knowledge to know that it is the cause of the tinted glasses which makes us to perceive that everything differently.
I think that the red tinted glasses create a barrier in how we perceive. This metaphor makes me think of the way we look at others. In Chinese, when we say that if people look at other people, wearing colored glasses, this means they always make bad impressions of that person as well as the people around him/her. It creates a barrier because a person might have treated you badly and you eventually form a different perspective as you have experience his/her immorality. However, this does not apply to other people as they’ve never experienced what you have. This shows how easily influenced humans are.
How does this apply to your own life?
I think that this chapter really inspires me in the way we perceive. I really like the part where Knox compared our knowledge with the cats. A cat would chase after the ball if it was dropped on the floor, but when a human saw a ball was dropped on the floor, we wouldn’t chase after it. Instead, we would want to find out WHERE it came from. Why do we think differently? Animal and human beings has intelligence as both can adapt and survive. Though, we still act different because we perceive differently. Human’s brain are complex, it is hard to figure out what other people think. Animal, they are less complex than human; therefore we can predict their actions.
A question: Do we perceive what we want to see?
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3 comments:
Carrie
Your end question is a formidable one, which has influenced postmodern culture for a while now – the idea that all ‘truth’ is subjective as we all perceive the world differently; therefore there is no ‘truth’ with a capital ‘T’, only our own personal versions of ‘truth’. Where to now? If we perceive only what we want to perceive that suggests there is no objective ‘truth’. It also denies empirical evidence as scientific study simply becomes driven by personal perception. For the religious it denies God, as God becomes a matter of personal need rather than an objective reality to be worshipped. The question you ask is one factor that led to modern existentialism. In the nineteenth century Nietzsche said God was dead; in the twentieth century Erich Fromm said that man was dead. Where to now, if ‘we perceive what we want to see’? If this is the case, then perhaps our perceptions are a mirror we can hold up to ourselves that teach us who we really are. For example, if you perceive the world in terms of profit and loss, success or failure based on exam scores, or victory in the competitive world of business, what does that say about your SELF? Was Fromm right then, in seeing how materialistic people had become in the twentieth century, when he said that man is dead?
M Turver
Hey Carrie,
I disagree with the fact that you think the red-tinted glasses creates a barrier. In my opinion the red-tinted glasses allows people to understand the world more. Like you have said, we might have been mistreated but by wearing the red-tinted glasses I think it allows us to understand why we were mistreated, and how we should act and preferably allow us to forget and forgive because I believe that everybody was born nice. So, therefore i think the red tinted glasses is a guidance to us, and how we expect to live our life.
I've heard of the example you gave from the Chinese culture. I do agree with it only to a certain extent. I would not say that by wearing colored glasses, one carries bad impression about people around them. It would, no doubt, create some sort of impression but that does not definitely have to be a bad or good one. Perhaps, it could just be a neutral impression. Yes, it may certainly create a barrier if you have had a bitter experience with someone and so you may think someone else is like that. I'm sure all of us have had a few bitter experiences and it may lead us to have preconceived impressions about other people but that would not make us think everyone is like that.
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