Assignment #2: The question of glasses-Yixia Gu

In “Kant”, Alberto performs an experiment by telling Sophie to wear the “red tinted glasses”, and she surprisingly sees everything around her, the table, the chair etc. in red or crimson. He uses the result of the experiment to state that the glasses limit our cognation and perception of the world because although we can declare that the world is red, it is only our own unique perspective. And so it comes down to the matter of immediate sensation or how our brain interprets and rationalizes the information we receive. Everyone is definitely allowed their own viewpoint, and that’s why philosophy embodies so many beliefs such as empiricism, the belief of science and proofs, and rationalism, the emphasis on believing only what we perceive.

Descartes for example stuck to his theory of a rationalist that “we cannot accept anything as being true unless we can clearly and distinctly perceive it” Due to his influence by mathematics, he wanted everything to be clearly laid out for him to analyse and probe into, just as a math question does. He doubted and questioned everything, which I feel is a good quality only if we don’t become cynical as to even doubt our own “senses”, because otherwise we would have nothing to rely on. Other philosophers such as Hume discarded reasoning as the answer to why we behave as we do, instead insisting on our emotions and sentiments. I feel that both the predetermined ability to reason, the distinction between the right and the wrong, and our inner feelings are what make a ‘balanced’ perception of the world.
In addition, as the book mentions, Kant was the medium of both empiricism and rationalism, and on aspect of his theory I find particularly interesting: the question of how the world began from nothing, and even if it had a beginning. Reason cannot be applied here, because it wouldn’t make sense anyway. What about the natural phenomenon of wind? We can understand how wind was created, and what impact it has, but cannot see it. Nevertheless, we still know that it does exist because we place our trust on it.

As ordinary people, or even potential philosophers, many of us today see the world through not only “red” glasses, but a kaleidoscope of colours. Although this might sound very strange, we accept many forms of perceptions and assumptions from different subjects in school and a multitude of external events and happenings. As the young generation, we see and think about may or may not be refined, even as adults we may be still searching for a reality, trying to find a satisfying answer.

It is my view that we choose our own glasses, and how we perceive the world. It is like going into an optic shop, (regardless of how well our eyesight is): first we choose the type of frame, which is our basic ideologies, and then we pick our lens, which is the tool of perception. The only difference is that we are the opticians; no one else determines the lens we see out of. However, we may be influenced by others and/or refine our perception, but towards life’s big questions everyone’s insight is different-we wouldn’t be unique otherwise.