The "red tinted glasses" metaphor in chapter 25 compares the way we see things physically and our perspective. Looking through the tinted glasses would obviously change everything that comes insight, everything would be in shades of red instead of the being normal and colorful. In this case, the red lenses act as some sort of filter and literally changes what you see things as. When applied to our daily lives, the "tinted glasses" would be our opinion. Where do opinions come from? They come from our experiences in lives. As people grow up, they have had a much larger exposure to things in the world, and had most probably been educated in a certain way. This gives us viewpoints, feelings, impressions of everything and those things often give us a biased image of what things really are, and we see things depending on our perspective. These "tinted glasses", or perception, limit us to the shades of red, and we can't see the diversity of colors the world offers.
Let's apply the theory of perspective in a real life situation. Big bosses of corporates would probably think that the more buildings built, the better things are. But obviously, the environmentalists would not agree with that as they think trees and animals are more important and should be preserved. Can we say one is right and the other is wrong, yet being fair? No we can't. Both sides have their perspectives, and just because we don't agree, doesn't mean that they are wrong.
However, some people solely believes in their senses. The key is that they think what they saw, or heard, is the whole truth and would not use any logic or knowledge. These people are called empiricists. The red tinted glasses metaphor shows us that what empiricists seem to believe in would most probably be wrong, and not trustworthy. It is obvious that the world isn't just in shades of red, if they actually thought about it with some sense. On the other hand, there are some people that base everything on their knowledge, and those people are rationalists. These people have another kind of 'tinted glasses': in their minds. Knowledge or experience blinds them and they don't see things for themselves.
Clearly, wearing 'tinted glasses' is not good - in the mind that is, sunglasses are fine if necessary. In an idealistic world, it is best that everyone just put down their opinions and prejudice. But certainly, the world is not idealistic and, to be frank, most people are shallow and opinionated. Many people like or dislike others just by first glance, determined by gender, appearance, age, and all sorts of other superficial factors. Some people would be like, "oh you're blond, so you're dumb" or "you're Asian, so you must eat lots of rice and be super good at maths".
In this chapter, Kant is trying to tell the readers that basing everything only on senses or knowledge is not good, as people would often need a balance of both to get the full understanding of things. Trust your senses and add a little bit of knowledge to anything and that would remove the tinted glasses and have a much less opinionated image of things.
Let's apply the theory of perspective in a real life situation. Big bosses of corporates would probably think that the more buildings built, the better things are. But obviously, the environmentalists would not agree with that as they think trees and animals are more important and should be preserved. Can we say one is right and the other is wrong, yet being fair? No we can't. Both sides have their perspectives, and just because we don't agree, doesn't mean that they are wrong.
However, some people solely believes in their senses. The key is that they think what they saw, or heard, is the whole truth and would not use any logic or knowledge. These people are called empiricists. The red tinted glasses metaphor shows us that what empiricists seem to believe in would most probably be wrong, and not trustworthy. It is obvious that the world isn't just in shades of red, if they actually thought about it with some sense. On the other hand, there are some people that base everything on their knowledge, and those people are rationalists. These people have another kind of 'tinted glasses': in their minds. Knowledge or experience blinds them and they don't see things for themselves.
Clearly, wearing 'tinted glasses' is not good - in the mind that is, sunglasses are fine if necessary. In an idealistic world, it is best that everyone just put down their opinions and prejudice. But certainly, the world is not idealistic and, to be frank, most people are shallow and opinionated. Many people like or dislike others just by first glance, determined by gender, appearance, age, and all sorts of other superficial factors. Some people would be like, "oh you're blond, so you're dumb" or "you're Asian, so you must eat lots of rice and be super good at maths".
In this chapter, Kant is trying to tell the readers that basing everything only on senses or knowledge is not good, as people would often need a balance of both to get the full understanding of things. Trust your senses and add a little bit of knowledge to anything and that would remove the tinted glasses and have a much less opinionated image of things.
1 comment:
The thing is though, like you said unfortunately the world is not idealistic and as humans are, almost naturally, shallow and prejudiced. More often than not we judge the book by its cover.
I do agree that basing our opinions on both emotions and knowledge is a good thing but i do not think that just because someone DOES balance their opinion, it would make it less prejudiced because maybe their "glasses" had filtered out the knowledge of the fact that maybe not all blonds are dumb, and all not all Asians eat rice and are good at math.
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