The red-tinted glasses are a symbol or metaphor of two quite opposite perceptions in life.
As the glasses limit what we can see in reality, it narrows down many things: our thoughts that are derived from what we see and sense, our persepctive of things, and our opinions are only a minority of the list. We can be blinded from reality and become increasingly biased. This is this what makes an empiricist, the pure trust in one's senses and oblivion to all else.
There are many who choose only to see things in the way they want it to be seen. By putting on the glasses and blocking out reality, they subdue themselves to the ignorance of the world. In a sense, this enhances the red bottle of liquid Sophie drinks from. Everything is blurred into one (colour) and all you see is that one thing you want to see or the one thing you are interested in: yourself.
However, a rationalist, regardless of what can be percieved, will come to conclusions based on the mind and reason as well as experience. They try to view things in an objective way, adding more colours to the shades of red.
These people drink from the blue bottle. Every detail is exquisite, and the intricacy provides all information required for a reasonable or correct opinion/view. Hence they are open-minded and are able to embrace all sorts of possibilities in life.
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2 comments:
Hi Helen
Another thoughtful and analytical response. You certainly seem to put a lot of faith in reason as a way of knowing. Is there any situation you can think of where emotion might give us more accurate insight into the world than reason alone? When might reason actually cloud our view and emotion open our view?
M Turver
Very interesting personal response, however I have some differing views.
Reason is based upon what we know. If I said that when I throw a ball in the air, reason says that the force of Gravity will make it come down. When you have 3 apples and then buy 2 apples, reason says that 2+3=5. So you have 5 apples.
But reason comes from what we learn and experience. And to do this, we have to empirically and sensually learn.
Using the reasons of Gravity, Balance and Anatomy, scientifically speaking, a human can not walk on two legs. Our head in proportion to the rest of our body is far too big. But we can walk on two legs, and most of us do every day.
If we add more colours to that shade of red, are we further limiting ourselves?
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