The Experiment...

In the book, Alberto Knox uses the “red-tinted glasses” as an experiment to demonstrate “Kant’s” philosophy that two elements contribute to our knowledge of the world. These two elements are our senses as well as our ability to reason. In this case, when Sophie puts on the tinted glasses, she sees everything in the room except their colors range from pink to crimson. Thus, Sophie’s ‘ability to reason’ is telling her that she is still in the room with Alberto Knox, but at the same time, how she sees the room, depends on the glasses that she is wearing. Because she is wearing the red-tinted glasses, Sophie sees the room in different shades of red. By combining these two elements, Sophie understands how Kant’s philosophy works. She knows the room (and Alberto Knox) is not suppose to be in shades of red because of her ability to think, reason and remember, but she sees things in hues of red because of her ability to see (her sense).

If one combines these two elements together, everyone would have a slightly different view of life. In other words, the combination of the two elements gives everyone their own point of view. This can be proved by one asking your friends how hard a certain test was, some might say that it was easy, some say fair and the rest say it was hard. This was also shown in the book, like how the rationalists, the empiricists, and Kant had different views of how we experience life. Kant thinks the two elements mentioned earlier combined are responsible for this. While the rationalists believed that reason and science is the key to our experience, and last but not least, the empiricists judge that our ability to perceive and experience is what supplies us with our knowledge of the world.

The theory behind the red-tinted glasses is shown more than once in the book. Another example is when a ball comes rolling into a room. If one was a cat, as Sophie says, one would “run after the ball”. However, if one was a human, one would look where the ball came from. Thus, what we see might be the same as a cat, but our ability to reason is different. Therefore, our “knowledge of the world” ends up different to that of a cat.

At the same time, this theory can also be presented in reality. As mentioned before, when you and your friends do the same test, each of you will have a different opinion of the test. Some of you will say that it was easy; some will say that it’s fair and the rest will probably say that it was hard. You all took the same test, but because of all your different abilities to reason, you all ended up with different experiences of the test. This consequently differs your knowledge of the world to that of your friends.

Everyone in this world holds their own unique pair of glasses, giving them their own way of perceiving and judging things around us. No two people will have the exact knowledge of the world. This is what makes us all unique and what makes us part of who we are and no one else.