'A Perceptual Experience'
We have all heard the question: “Does the falling tree make a noise if there is nobody there to hear it?” Or 'When a feather falls from the air above when someone is around, does it make a noise when it lands?' Alternately, we are asked, 'Does an infant crying in the night have no language or a cry!'
In these three conundrums, ‘relativism’ plays its part, as it does with the functioning of perception, and in particular, the accuracy of two people’s perception who are part of the same event.
In these three conundrums, ‘relativism’ plays its part, as it does with the functioning of perception, and in particular, the accuracy of two people’s perception who are part of the same event.
The truth about ‘a shared experience’ is essentially that there is no such thing! Whereas two or more persons can be a part of the same external event, it doesn’t follow that what they will have been part of is the same experience. It will have been experienced differently by each of them. They will both process what they saw, heard and perceived within that event uniquely differently. For instance, were two people to enter the same room at precisely the same time and both observe a woman half-way through the process of either rising from or sitting back down on her chair, but poised momentarily for the slightest fraction of a second, could either observer truly know if the woman was in the process of standing up or sitting down?
We have all heard the story about the man who saw the old woman with a walking stick at the side of a busy road and after assisting her across the road, discovered that she had already crossed the road the other way mere minutes before he'd arrived on the scene to erroneously intervene!
Consider the following three propositions, questions and answers:
Proposition one: There are two people having a heated row, a man and a woman. During the altercation, the man loses his temper and hits the woman across the face with the inside of an open hand. In this example, does the man ‘slap’ the woman across the face or does he ‘punch’ her?
Answer one: He can be accurately described as having ‘slapped’ her.
Proposition one: There are two people having a heated row, a man and a woman. During the altercation, the man loses his temper and hits the woman across the face with the inside of an open hand. In this example, does the man ‘slap’ the woman across the face or does he ‘punch’ her?
Answer one: He can be accurately described as having ‘slapped’ her.
Proposition two: The same scenario as before between the man and woman rowing, but on this occasion the man clenches his hand into a fist and strikes the woman in the face. In this example does the man ‘slap’ the woman across the face or does he ‘punch’ her?
Answer two: He can accurately be described as having ‘punched’ her.
Answer two: He can accurately be described as having ‘punched’ her.
Proposition three: The same scenario as before between the man and woman rowing, but on this occasion before the man strikes the woman in the face he has the palm of his hand in a ‘half-open, half-closed’ position.
In this example does the man ‘slap’ the woman or does he ‘punch’ her.
Answer three: The answer will depend upon ‘who’ is assessing and experiencing the situation; whether it is the woman or the man in question. If it is the person ‘being hit’ who is assessing the situation, she will most certainly say and perceive the act as ‘having been punched’. However, if the person assessing the situation is the man ‘who did the hitting’, he will most likely say that he ‘slapped the woman’. Both the man doing the hitting and the woman being hit might honestly perceive the action as having been a ‘slap’ or a ‘punch!’
In this example does the man ‘slap’ the woman or does he ‘punch’ her.
Answer three: The answer will depend upon ‘who’ is assessing and experiencing the situation; whether it is the woman or the man in question. If it is the person ‘being hit’ who is assessing the situation, she will most certainly say and perceive the act as ‘having been punched’. However, if the person assessing the situation is the man ‘who did the hitting’, he will most likely say that he ‘slapped the woman’. Both the man doing the hitting and the woman being hit might honestly perceive the action as having been a ‘slap’ or a ‘punch!’
Who’d want to be on a Jury?
Would the Jury come back with a different verdict if it was either an all male or all female Jury? What do you think?
Copyright William Forde April, 2012.
Would the Jury come back with a different verdict if it was either an all male or all female Jury? What do you think?
Copyright William Forde April, 2012.
