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| Thread: Perceptions |  This thread is pages long: 1 2 3 · «PREV |
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JollyJoker
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posted March 02, 2011 09:37 AM |
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I don't want to intrude in this quality discussion - but isn't LABELLING (and, like Bboy called it, its evil cousin prejudice), the exact OPPOSITE of perception?
Wouldn't perception mean to shut out all labelling and simply PERCEIVE? And isn't labelling the consequence of this procedure being too demanding and exhaustive on that scale?
Described differently - GENERALIZING is one aim of perception for humans. If you perceive something often enough, whether you make use of inherited labels or not, you will draw a conclusion from that, generalizing. If you contact 5 blondes and all of them appear to be fairly simple-minded, you will tend to rule out happenstance and come to the conclusion that blondes are fairly simple-minded, labelling them, saving you further perceptional work.
Which is what it amounts to. It's like trying to find a match when comparing finger prints - you do not compare everything, but only so many key parts, in order to MINIMIZE the necessary work for obtaining a decent result.
Which would be the bottom line - all human perception, with the help of the brain, aims to obtain conclusive results or general INSIGHTS, making further perception for that matter obsolete. "If you have seen one you've seen them all", is a favorite saying.
I think, there is nothing wrong with it. However, the art is, to not completely shut perception out in seemingly "solved" issues, but somehow keep half an eye open, registering "deviations" and thereby honing general insights.
To illustrate that, after generalzing that all blondes are fairly simple-minded, there's nothing wrong to avoid them based on that insight - but if you can't avoid contact and perceive a witty conversation by a blonde, it should register. However, trouble is, that things are not always clear-cut. In this case you could ask yourself whether she may have dyed her hair instead of whether your insight was a bit rash. "Did you dye your hair?", may not be the best starting line for a conversation, but if you use it, depending on the answer how immobile your insights - prejudices - are, it may be the ground of another "insight: that non-blondes tend to lie.
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Fauch
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posted March 02, 2011 05:05 PM |
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I'm not sure how perceiving is too demanding, since it doesn't require you to do anything else than watching. then, when the thoughts begin, you start labelling, and I suppose thinking is more demanding than just watching.
well, of course, once you've labelled something, it prevents the trouble to have to think about it again. but why did you think about it in the 1st place?
when you say that perceiving is difficult, maybe you mean the concentration. for me, perceiving is just seeing, without making any commentary. concentration involves an effort, you wouldn't need to concentrate if you really liked what you do or watch (unless you are tired)
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Jabanoss
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posted March 02, 2011 05:14 PM |
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Edited by Jabanoss at 17:17, 02 Mar 2011.
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I think JJ is making some excellent points here. And to respond what Fauch is saying, I don't think perception in itself is demanding but the way we as persons is handling it is no doubt demanding. All the various inputs that we can receive must be handled one way or another whether it is tastes, smells or sounds...
And by labeling you can limit the amount of work needed to handle the information that you have been given. So I don't think seeing or hearing is tiresome work in itself, but to take care of these inputs requires work and that is "partly" where labeling comes in to make it easier for us. (But certainly it is also used for other reasons, for example to know whom to trust...)
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- Meroe
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Fauch
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posted March 02, 2011 05:24 PM |
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you mean, that's memorizing them which demands an effort?
if you perceive and just let thing goes, is there an effort?
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Jabanoss
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posted March 02, 2011 07:22 PM |
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Well if you perceive something you must handle it in order too know if it's worth memorizing at all.(and since most memorizing happens whether we like it or not, even more work is demeanded from just perceiving")
But don't get me wrong I'm not saying you're getting exhausted just by watching something. 
All I'm saying is that if see something you recognize, something that you already have labeled, then of course you don't need to ponder about as much as if you observe something that is completely new to you.
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"You turn me on Jaba"
- Meroe
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JollyJoker
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posted March 02, 2011 07:31 PM |
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It's the purpose of EXPERIENCE which is supposed to help you survive.
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Jabanoss
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posted March 02, 2011 07:44 PM |
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And labeling is partly based on experience. For example if all girls you have encountered are Barbie loving hippies then of course your experience with those girls will make you label all girls as such. (or there's a big likelihood that you will, but that's ofc based on the person.)
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"You turn me on Jaba"
- Meroe
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Keksimaton
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posted March 04, 2011 09:07 PM |
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@Jaba & JJ:
It was a beneficial ability to think linearily. It didn't even matter if one was able to make completely truthful judgements, as long as it helped you not die and mate. Noises heard from the bushes of course doesn't necessarily mean that there is a predator lurking there, but if one was to attempt to cast away his prejudice against bush noises and investigate the causes of the noise thoroughly he'd propably end up getting killed sooner or later. However, this sort of caveman thinking comes to bite us in the backside now that we actually can care and sometimes do care about more or less truthful judgements about our surroundings.
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Noone shall pass, but no one besides him shall pass.
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