If we were to remove our 'glasses' would we all see the same world?

Red lenses act as a filter – that is in the optical sense they transmit red light but absorb all others. In this way our perception of the world is altered. We see everything that reflects red light as red. Therefore although our eyes have not changed in their ability to perceive colour, the filter has removed reflections of all other colours and therefore our cognition of the world has changed. So Kant believed that the empiricists were not wholly correct in believing that the senses were the source of all our knowledge of the world, but that the mind could be modified in its the interpretation of perceived phenomena. Thus he believed that the rationalists were only partly correct in their assertion that our knowledge of the world lay solely in the mind.

Kant believed that the mind was conditioned by two forms of ‘intuition’ which he called ‘time’ and ‘space’. The mind is molded by these two forms of intuition and could provide radically different answers to the same phenomenon. Here he used the example of Copernicus ‘The New Astronomy’ discovery that the earth revolves around the sun and not vice versa as was previously thought. Here was a completely different interpretation of the same phenomenon – that of day and night. He called it the Copernican Revolution.

One such similar example is that of the barnacle goose. Early naturalists could not explain why the birds disappeared and then reappeared the following season. In order to explain this perceived phenomenon – for they had no understanding of bird migration – their rational explanation was that the birds arose or were born from the barnacles that were found on the seashore, for the barnacles appeared to them to be embryonic birds with ‘beaks’. Hence they were called goose barnacles. Here their perception was moulded by their understanding that the arriving birds must have been born – as that was their intuition in time and space.

In conclusion, I believe the red-tinted glasses are just a metaphor to show how our perspective of life can be altered and changed. These “glasses” could represent, say, our upbringing, education or our class. If we were to remove these glasses would we all see the same world? I believe we wouldn’t as our perspective doesn’t depend wholly on our senses, but also our mind.