Updated: June 13, 2025
Do our senses provide us an experience of the real world? Because naive
realism says that the world is real, the senses
are taking in information
and somehow converting it
into sensations, images, feelings
and thoughts. Of course,
this is called the hard problem
of consciousness, for which there is
no explanation. And I think
that can be solved if you revise your basic
assumption that there is
an objective material world. I say this for the
following reason: Our perceptions
are entangled with our mental
processes. Our senses do not just take
in information from the world
around us, but our brains also do not
simply record information.
Instead, they actively
interpret it. And of course,
the brain is the neural
correlate of the mind, so reinterpret
information, which is actually
fundamentally, radically ambiguous. What we call
the real world is radically ambiguous
and ceaselessly flowing,
quantum soup.
So our senses, somehow
subtle senses, interpret whatever that
radically ambiguous and ceaseless,
flowing soup is, quantum soup, but then do it
based on our past experiences,
our expectations and our current
emotional state. This means that
our perceptions are not accurate representations
of reality. They can be
influenced by our thoughts,
feelings and beliefs. For example, if you are afraid of
spiders, you may be more likely to perceive a harmless spider
as a threat. Or if you are
in a bad mood, you may be more
likely to interpret natural events
as negative. The entanglement
of perception and mental processes
is also evident in some
what people call mental disorders
like schizophrenia.
Many people
with schizophrenia often have what the normal person or so-called normal
person would… would consider distorted, such as seeing
or hearing things that are not true, but we are already
seeing and hearing things
that are not true, we just agree on
what is true. So these distortions
are thought to be caused by problems of
the brain's ability to interpret sensory
information. Overall,
our perceptions are not simply a matter
of passively recording
information. They actively construct
our reality. Here are some
specific examples of how
our mental processes can influence our perceptions:
Expectations. If we expect to see
something, we are more likely
to see it. For example, if you're walking
down the street and you expect
to see a dog, you're more likely
to notice a dog that is actually
there, right there,
otherwise you didn't notice it. Attention. What we pay
attention to, and that's number two, can affect
our perception.
For example, if you are looking for
a specific color, you're more likely to notice objects
of that color. Experience. Our past experience
can also influence our perception. Three. For example,
if you have a bad experience
with a spider, as I said, more likely to be afraid
of spiders. Emotions. Our emotions can also affect
your perceptions. So for example, if you're feeling
happy, you're more likely
to perceive the world
in a positive light. So bottom line, mind and perception are entangled in giving us
an experience of what we call
the physical world, and that
includes our body. So I think the more
we think about it, naive realism seems to be
a false assumption of reality. Let me
know your thoughts.
