The basis of perception
The fundamental questions can be put as follows: how does an external reality influence the perception of the human species? What are the steps in that influence? How can the influence be conceptualised?
We know that sight perception depends on the flow of photons in through the pupils and absorbed in the retina. The photons are or exist beyond the confines of us, and without them there is no sight perception. The other senses can be discussed in a similar manner. Therefore with the operation of our senses we do know there is something there that can and is influencing the sensory mechanisms within ourselves, but we do not necessarily know what it is that is causing the sense experience. Modern virtual reality is testimony to the extent that our senses can be manipulated (7).
It can be reasonably postulated that hearing, vision, smell etc, each involve different neurones (8). And that these perceptual systems can be active without involvement of any psychological factors (9).
It is very difficult for people to engage in 'un-interpreted perception' (10). But it is possible for people to stop seeing a book as a book and to see it as lines, rectangle, parallelogram, etc. The question remains whether or not this is still interpretation, certainly it is more fundamental. However this particular aspect of the debate is not crucial to our argument.
The key question is whether or not it is possible to perceive without being aware of doing so? For example, can we smell a smell without being conscious of the odour at the time? I believe so, and would recount examples myself where on discussing some incident I would recall, 'yes, I remember, but I did not notice at the time.' I argue this is not an uncommon or unusual experience (11).
A consequence is to give rise to two levels of perception. The first is what I will call immediate perception, and is totally physical, the operation of the physical universe following its mechanistic pathways, some of which happen to occur as neural events in our brains. The second level of perception is the interpretative level where our psychology and attention is implicated in the perceptual act.
Immediate perception is direct, mediated only by the physiology of the perceiving species. Moving beyond immediate perception, such as when a person attends to what they are perceiving (12), then all the well known aspects come to the fore (such as seeing an O when it is not fully closed, or not seeing a word repeated in a sentence). A problem is the terminology, for now we have 'immediate perception', strictly physiologically driven, and the more normal 'perception', involving the psychological factors. I will use the term 'perception' to refer to the complete act of 'perceiving', and involving the psychological factors. Where I need to refer to the more restrictive physiological reacting part only, then I shall use the term 'immediate perception' (13). The obvious consequence is that we do not necessarily perceive that which we immediately perceive � with no contradiction in terms.
The diagram below is a conceptual schematic of the process of immediate perception.
The mechanisms of immediate perception are a set of physical events in the physical universe, labelled World 1 as per the earlier stated convention.
The external Reality is generating a perceptual field that is influencing the eye, which in turn is influencing the neurones of the visual cortex. The visual cortex is the reacting part. This reacting part has other aspects to its environment, namely it can influence and be influenced by other parts of the brain and central nervous system represented by arrows from the visual cortex to 'thought' and 'emotion'. The arrows in the diagram mean 'able to have a direct effect upon' (14). The system within the box labelled World 1 is the model of immediate perception as developed thus far. The interaction of the visual cortex with other parts of the brain and central nervous system represented by the arrows to thought and emotion, is the beginning of the analysis of the complete act of perception involving the emotive and interpretative elements.
Thus far, there seems little to sensibly debate. We have built a model of immediate perception that says that we immediately perceive Reality via a perceptual field, and even more specifically, we immediately perceive reality via the effect a perceptual field has on sensory apparatus of our physiology. If the perceptual field has no effect on our physiology, in particular if we were observing a perceptual field and that field changed yet that change could not or at least did not effect our physiology then for us there was no change. The universe would remain as it was prior to the change. Furthermore, this conclusion is general and applies to all species.
We also know that at least for humans there is another whole dimension to the perceptual act involving the interpretation and classification of perceptual events. However, for now we have the base needed for us to proceed to the next step, and do not need to consider the issues of perception involving psychology. This will be done later when we have fully reviewed the issues and implications of our immediate interaction with perceptual fields.
All I seek to establish is, first, that, for example sight perception is not possible without photons, and second, that photons influence the neurones involved in sight, and third that this can occur without there being any interpretation and without involving attention. The fourth and final point might be that this analysis of sight applies to all senses, and that the analysis applies to all species, each species being effected by the perceptual fields relative to their physiology.
The basis of perception
The fundamental questions can be put as follows: how does an external reality influence the perception of the human species? What are the steps in that influence? How can the influence be conceptualised?
We know that sight perception depends on the flow of photons in through the pupils and absorbed in the retina. The photons are or exist beyond the confines of us, and without them there is no sight perception. The other senses can be discussed in a similar manner. Therefore with the operation of our senses we do know there is something there that can and is influencing the sensory mechanisms within ourselves, but we do not necessarily know what it is that is causing the sense experience. Modern virtual reality is testimony to the extent that our senses can be manipulated (7).
It can be reasonably postulated that hearing, vision, smell etc, each involve different neurones (8). And that these perceptual systems can be active without involvement of any psychological factors (9).
It is very difficult for people to engage in 'un-interpreted perception' (10). But it is possible for people to stop seeing a book as a book and to see it as lines, rectangle, parallelogram, etc. The question remains whether or not this is still interpretation, certainly it is more fundamental. However this particular aspect of the debate is not crucial to our argument.
The key question is whether or not it is possible to perceive without being aware of doing so? For example, can we smell a smell without being conscious of the odour at the time? I believe so, and would recount examples myself where on discussing some incident I would recall, 'yes, I remember, but I did not notice at the time.' I argue this is not an uncommon or unusual experience (11).
A consequence is to give rise to two levels of perception. The first is what I will call immediate perception, and is totally physical, the operation of the physical universe following its mechanistic pathways, some of which happen to occur as neural events in our brains. The second level of perception is the interpretative level where our psychology and attention is implicated in the perceptual act.
Immediate perception is direct, mediated only by the physiology of the perceiving species. Moving beyond immediate perception, such as when a person attends to what they are perceiving (12), then all the well known aspects come to the fore (such as seeing an O when it is not fully closed, or not seeing a word repeated in a sentence). A problem is the terminology, for now we have 'immediate perception', strictly physiologically driven, and the more normal 'perception', involving the psychological factors. I will use the term 'perception' to refer to the complete act of 'perceiving', and involving the psychological factors. Where I need to refer to the more restrictive physiological reacting part only, then I shall use the term 'immediate perception' (13). The obvious consequence is that we do not necessarily perceive that which we immediately perceive � with no contradiction in terms.
The diagram below is a conceptual schematic of the process of immediate perception.
The mechanisms of immediate perception are a set of physical events in the physical universe, labelled World 1 as per the earlier stated convention.
The external Reality is generating a perceptual field that is influencing the eye, which in turn is influencing the neurones of the visual cortex. The visual cortex is the reacting part. This reacting part has other aspects to its environment, namely it can influence and be influenced by other parts of the brain and central nervous system represented by arrows from the visual cortex to 'thought' and 'emotion'. The arrows in the diagram mean 'able to have a direct effect upon' (14). The system within the box labelled World 1 is the model of immediate perception as developed thus far. The interaction of the visual cortex with other parts of the brain and central nervous system represented by the arrows to thought and emotion, is the beginning of the analysis of the complete act of perception involving the emotive and interpretative elements.
Thus far, there seems little to sensibly debate. We have built a model of immediate perception that says that we immediately perceive Reality via a perceptual field, and even more specifically, we immediately perceive reality via the effect a perceptual field has on sensory apparatus of our physiology. If the perceptual field has no effect on our physiology, in particular if we were observing a perceptual field and that field changed yet that change could not or at least did not effect our physiology then for us there was no change. The universe would remain as it was prior to the change. Furthermore, this conclusion is general and applies to all species.
We also know that at least for humans there is another whole dimension to the perceptual act involving the interpretation and classification of perceptual events. However, for now we have the base needed for us to proceed to the next step, and do not need to consider the issues of perception involving psychology. This will be done later when we have fully reviewed the issues and implications of our immediate interaction with perceptual fields.
All I seek to establish is, first, that, for example sight perception is not possible without photons, and second, that photons influence the neurones involved in sight, and third that this can occur without there being any interpretation and without involving attention. The fourth and final point might be that this analysis of sight applies to all senses, and that the analysis applies to all species, each species being effected by the perceptual fields relative to their physiology.
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