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Sensation and Perception
The issue of being able to trust one's senses has been the topic of many philosophical debates and whole books have been written on this debate. There are convincing arguments made for both sides of the issue. Nonetheless, anyone who ambulates, operates a motor vehicle, eats, interacts with others, etc. trusts the information that their senses give them (Christian, 2011). Sensory information is the result of physical stimuli collected by sense organs and transferred and processed in the brain, whereas perception is the interpretation of these stimuli that occurs at the higher levels of the brain (Hatfield, 2013). Sensory information in the absence of frank brain damage is an actual reflection of the physical stimulation that is delivered to the various processing areas of the brain (Hatfield, 2013). One's perception of the world is open to subjective interpretation (Hatfield, 2013). The big question regarding whether one can trust their senses should not be a yes or no question nor should it be an absolute question. So, if the question is "Should you always trust your senses (perceptions)?" The answer is no; however, if the question is "Should you generally trust your senses (perceptions)?" The answer is yes. The dilemma occurs when deciding when to put faith in one's senses/perceptions and when to question and rationally inspect them.
For instance, let's suppose you are driving down the freeway. Should you trust your sensory information? Well, any person that is going to get in a car...
If you see a car stopped in front of your vehicle you will trust this sensory registration (or perception) and stop your car in order to avoid a collision (otherwise if you decide not to trust them and decide that there is really no car stopped in the road you will be in trouble). However, when looking to change lanes while driving there is good reason not to always trust your perceptions. As it turns out the brain automatically reconstructs the sensory stimulation in order to form a perception and with regards to visual information there is a blind spot in the visual field where the optic nerve is located in the retina (Snowden, Snowden, Thompson, & Troscianko, 2012). If we were to actually perceive the world as our senses reproduce it there would be a blind spot in our visual world; however, the brain fills in the blind spot based on the visual information around that particular area (Hatfield, 2013). So we perceive the world visually without a blind spot. If one changes lanes without looking over one's shoulder one may actually run into a car that was perceived as not being there.
Moreover our perceptions of the world can be influenced by certain cognitive biases. Our general knowledge of the world is certainly very much dependent on sensory information (Christian, 2011). However,…
References
Christian, J.L. (2011). Philosophy: An introduction to the art of wondering (11th ed.). New
York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
Hatfield R.C. (2013). The everything guide to the human brain. Avon, MA: Adams Publishing.
Heider, F. & Simmel, M. (1944). An experimental study of apparent behavior. American Journal of Psychology, 57, 243-249.
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