Assignment #2

“Revisit the "red-tinted glasses" extended metaphor in Chapter 25 ('Kant'). What's the meaning of it? (Hint: Consider what Sophie discovers about rationalists and empiricists along the way.) How do these questions of perspective apply to your own life? Use examples from the novel and your life to illustrate your understanding of the "red-tinted glasses" metaphor/experiment.”

Alberto Knox uses the metaphor “red-tinted glasses” to explain to Sophie about Kant’s idea on how certain conditions leading our minds process that influence on the way we see things. These conditions were our two ‘forms of intuition’, ‘time’ and ‘space’. He emphasized that we can know things before we even experience it.
In order for Sophie to fully understand, Knox carried out an experiment, giving her a pair of red tinted glasses to wear which limited and changed her view of the world, how she could not see the actual colors of the earth, but only in red.

Between empiricists and rationalists, it is clear to see they both disagreed with each other but both had correct theories, to an extent. Rationalists believed that knowledge comes from a reason within our minds. Everything we know for a fact must have a reason in order for it to be considered as a ‘fact’. Empiricists believed that our view on the world develops entirely through our sense perceptions. Just like the glasses, because we have them on, yes our vision changes; however that does not mean the world is the way we see it.

In my opinion, I do agree with all three ideas of Rationalists, Empiricists and Kant.
I do believe that all things must happen for a reason, why do you think we have people like philosophers? They’re the ones trying to fill in the gaps of questions that may not have an explanation/reason to. Then from another look, I think the only way to fully understand something is to experience it. Take challenge week for an example. Sure, before the trip to Kenya, I was always told not to “waste water” and for resources, “use only what you need”. To be honest, I never really followed those rules, I would use excessive amount of toilet paper just to wipe my hands rather than using a towel and with water, left it running when washing my face. Then after Africa, visiting the school and what they had to cope with, it really got me to how precious the basic needs were and that I was really ‘throwing’ them away without thinking about it.
For Kant, I think that different environments will change the view through the ‘glasses’ according to who wears it. For instance, in the States, it is considered normal to wear miniskirts and wear outfits that show off your body, but in the Middle East, it is a law that every woman must be covered from head to toe, not exposing any skin to the public.

To conclude, I believe that wearing the “red-tinted glasses” does change our perception but only to an extent and that our views are mostly ‘influential’. We as individuals are all brought up differently, in methods and environment and those ways all play a big role in shaping our views on the world.