How can you tell if your ability to perceive is normal? Who defines normal> Due October 9.
6 Comments
Gabriella Freeman
10/5/2012 01:27:57 am
One can not know whether their ability to perceive is normal or not. In fact, one can't define normal, because what might be normal for them, could be completely abnormal for someone else. For example, for religious people it may be normal to pray every night, but for non-religous people, praying would be abnormal. Hence, knowing whether ones ability to perceive is normal or not is impossible, as no one actually knows exactly how someone else perceives things, as well as the fact that '' normal '' is a rather broad and general term.
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Anna Pearson
10/9/2012 04:16:22 am
There is no way to distinguish if our perception is normal because there is no definition of a normal perception. One way we can define a normal perception is if the majority of humans perceive something one way. For example, someone who is color-blind would have an abnormal perception because the majority of humans aren't color-blind and those who aren't color-blind have a normal perception. However, that is only one criteria of determining normal perception of just eyesight. How do we know that my perception of the color blue is the same perception of the color blue as my friend?
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Marina Teixeira
10/24/2012 06:25:56 am
There is no way for one person to define what is normal, nor is there a way for anyone to define what is normal. Since we can only see what we see, there is no way to determine what is and what isn’t. Even though people might agree to call one color the same name, for example, there is no way to be positive that the color one person is seeing is the same as what another person is seeing. The concept is really tricky and in a sense somewhat hard to grasp; however if one stops to think no one can ever be sure if what everyone sees. The fact that people understand, view, have different opinions and respond differently to the same things only prove and reinforce the fact that things might be seen differently for every single person. Another thing that supports that statement is how different people understand differently the same image. In math, for example, a problem presented to two different students might be very clear and simple to one student, who will be able to understand the answer very quickly, while to the other student it might be a very hard concept to grasp in which he or she will take longer to understand. So, if the same problem is presented to different people with the same education why are some people able to reach the answer faster than others? The answer is simple the way that we view the same things in the world is different. As much as we call the same thing by one name only, there is no guarantee, in fact it easy to prove the exact opposite, that one person is seeing or interpreting the same thing as another person would from that same object.
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Sarah Godoy
11/18/2012 05:55:42 am
To question if our ability to perceive is normal is almost to question why someone is “good or bad”. There is no true answer and no real way to express what is possibly “normal”; the only reason why we say it is such is because of societal customs. Because most of the people perceive the color blue as a certain color tone, we call this tone blue. However, there is no way to prove and even to check if the tone of blue that I observe is observed in the same way by another person. I’ve actually encountered this situation many times. For example, when I was choosing the paint color for my bedroom walls, I was supposed to choose from a color pallet. I chose one tone of blue and pointed it out to my mother, and she said “ok, turquoise”. But it was not a tone I would consider to be turquoise AT ALL. The way she viewed the color was different from the way I perceived it, and sometimes I wonder if her way of perceiving that color was actually completely different from mine or if it was just a matter of knowing how to express the color she perceived. Normality is a matter of perspective; it just happens to be that most of the people fall into the perspective of what is most common among society.
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Pedro Paulo
11/25/2012 03:12:15 am
Normality is a subjective term, it varies according to ones ideas or beliefs. Therefore, it is not up to a single person or a collection of human beings to determine if one's perception is normal or not. Is this really true? Considering that normality can be a term which can be used in other contexts such as of a word that applies to something in order to characterize it as a thing similar to the common perception of human beings, the word normality can be used in a collective and objective manner. It is NORMAL for a human being to see a snake instead of a dog if the creature has 4 legs and barks? NO! It is normal for somebody to take a glance at a laugh and interpret it as a sign of sadness? NO! It is important to be careful before saying that things cannot be determined as normal or abnormal. It is still crucial to observe things in a pragmatic and objective way, even though the society we live in wants to insert within our minds that it is normal to see things solely through a subjective lens.
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Athavan Balendran
11/25/2012 08:46:25 pm
The ability to perceive is completely based on perspective. There is no normal based on a population, only a normal within oneself. Everybody has a different way of perceiving with some people having very similar ways of perceiving, but no two people will exactly agree on everything in a fair system. I reference the fair system because often times there may be a situation where a person is forced into agreeing with a certain action or persuaded by some hidden force. In a fair situation where a person is able to use their own personal beliefs developed from their experience in life to judge and make their own opinion on a situation, the opinion will most definitely be different from anyone else. If everyone has a differing opinion, then how can there ever be a norm? However, within a personal boundary, there can be established norm. For example if a person traditionally has a certain view that they follow or make apparent, and then one day they vote or decide against it, they would be going against their personal norm. Often personal norms can be influenced by other people that may have originally similar beliefs, or completely contrary, but well supported beliefs. Thus it can be concluded that the person that defines normal is the person who perceives their own normality. No one else can define what is normal except yourself.
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