Realisation #7: What we see reflects our way of looking
When we look into the world, what we see is
determined by the way we look at it. Because reality is more complex than our
ideas of it, we tend to focus on those features that we recognise, thus
confirming our existing beliefs about the nature of things. Physical appearances
are fundamentally determined by our ability to perceive certain aspects of what
is through our senses. Understanding is similarly limited by the ideas that we
hold, and the ways that we think and act.
If the physicist sets up an experiment to look
for particles, she finds particles. If she looks for waves, she finds waves. A
well known metaphor for this phenomenon can be found in the example of the blind
men and the elephant. Each one encounters just one part of the animal and draws
their own conclusions about what the entire creature must be like, but nobody
sees the elephant.
When we ask
fundamental questions about the world, the answers we get—or our failure
to obtain an answer—are often simply reflections of our way of thinking or
asking the question, and say nothing about the world as it really is. As far as
the ultimate nature of things goes, we are all blind men in a kingdom of
elephants.
Posted on Thursday - July 07, 2005 at 09:45 AM
