The red-tinted glasses mentioned in Chapter 25 is a metaphor that explains how the world we percieve is limited by different things. In the case of the glasses, it causes everything we see to be tinged red, which means that new things we see would also be in red, leading us to believe that they are in reality red.
Similarly, our morals and values can also be a sort of "red tinted glasses", as they affect how we see different things. For example, we may view homosexual people in a negative slant because of our own values and morals. A homosexual may be in reality far from the way we "see" them. Linking with the book, rationalists and empiricists themsleves wear "red tinted glasses" in the form of their beliefs towards how people percieve things. The rationalists believe only the mind and reason affect how we see things, whereas the empiricists believe that the senses alone affect our perception.
There are always two sides to everything, which means that everything we see has another side to it, which we may not necessarily see. Kant was able to see both sides to the argument between the rationalists and the empiricists, as he believed that both of them were correct to a certain degree. He understood that neither of those arguments could be the sole method in which people percieved things. He felt that people percieved things in two methods, sensory perception and reason. Without the other, neither of these methods could serve to form a complete person. Even in the case of a deaf or a blind person, they would rely on their other sensory abilities in order to percieve things, in addition to using their minds to think things through.
People are not born with the red tinted glasses on, rather they are thrust upon them by values and morals of society that they are taught. The glasses can be seen as a veil that change the way we see things. The situation can be likened to people sitting in the cave viewing shadows, as the ability for you to see the world in a different light depends on whether you have the courage to see what the other side of the story is like. Once this courage is obtained and acted upon, then the values and morals thrust upon you will no longer be a barrier and you will be able to see not only red, but blue green and yellow as well.
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3 comments:
Does it really lead us to believe that the real world is red? Doesn't our reasoning keep us from that false perception?
I like your discussion and description about the red tinted glasses, rationalists and empricists - to a certain degree. I think Gloria is correct as well; wouldn't we have the knowledge to think or believe that not everything we see is real? Shouldn't we be able to tell that just because we are seeing through red tinted glasses doesn't mean that everything we see is necessarily red for sure?
Alex,
I agree that there isn't only one way in which you can view the world, and that we have to use both reason and perception to obtain what we need. But even if we crossed over this 'barrier', are we not still limited BY our senses and knowledge? We still do not have a complete understanding of the world, but only the morals and values of society you spoke of.
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