Question

Answer the following in a paragraph:

1.      What is meant by the terms perception and external world? Explain philosophical problem that exists in reconciling perception and the external word using an example of your choice?

Answer 1

Note: This response is in UK English, please paste the response to MS Word and you should be able to spot discrepancies easily. You may elaborate the answer based on personal views or your classwork if necessary.

(Answer) In epistemology, perception is simply how we perceive the world through sight, smell, touch, taste etc. In this case, the external world is that which we perceive or inhabit.

This would make perceptual knowledge an awareness of something in the external world. This knowledge is acquired through our senses. This means that knowledge is attained through our senses.

The philosophical problem that exists with perception and the real world is that if something isn’t perceived through the senses, how can it be true to the real world? Let us assume an attribute like “faith.” Individuals have faith in God, a mother a loved one etc.

Our senses generally would have no external world proof of the existence of God since we haven’t seen or heard him. Yet, one’s faith is just as tangible an emotion as anything else that is caused by objective perception. Subjective perception is something I and most humans are likely to go through. Each time we have faith in a loved one with no evidence, it is an example of the philosophical problem between concepts like the external world and perception.