• I like sushi
    4.3k
    Perceptions of Experience & Experiences of Perception

    As the title suggests there is a strange misapplication of terms easy to slip into during the event of communicating, and processing, any given idea. As an example of this I am going to explore the use of the term ‘hammer’ and the experiences and perceptions of some ‘hammer’. The difference of ‘perception’ and ‘experience’, in this essay, will be considered thus ... ‘perception’ being the amalgam of sensible ‘experience’, where experiences are ‘after’ sensible input (of content receding into the past and drawn on to form the present context - the ‘perception’). To differentiate with more clarity between ‘perceive’ and ‘experience’ it will serve to view ‘experience’ as that which ‘moves’ back through time; a receding thought. Whilst ‘perceive’ is a reversal fo this; the ‘feedback’ - perceptions brought forward to culminate in the moment alongside, not apart from, ‘experience’. To sum up, Perception ‘drives’ forward and Experience ‘drives’ backward, yet they exist parallel/entwined in the now and are known as one unity pulled in different temporal orientations; attracted as they are toward temporal poles (future and past) yet BOTH in equal possession of said poles. This is akin to the ancient Greek titans, “Prometheus” and “Epimetheus.” The brothers representing ‘foresight’ and ‘hindsight’ respectively; or Perception (perceptive) and Experience (memory). Note: Epimetheus was often depicted as being ‘foolish’.

    What is a ‘hammer’? Let us start by spreading our net far and wide rather than ‘hammering home’ some precise and rigid definition! Here the term is used as part of a phrase, and could even be used to reference other items or personalities; an ‘anvil’ or ‘Thor’ - the horizon quickly expanding into a seemingly infinite array of examples. We find that analogy, parable and metaphorical use all act to emphasize an idea’s import by capturing it within a more tangible symbolic form; this can obviously lead us away from the item in question or closer to it (this is the danger of misplaced creativity!). All this seems too distant from what we generally mean when talking of a ‘hammer’ - outside of contextualism that is. Many would say a thing is what it does and/or what its ‘use’ is. So, can we in this sense say a ‘hammer’ is for ‘hammering,’ and that this means the ‘hammer’ is what it’s used for? Without intending to I can see clearly that some would scream “contextualism!”, but that is like saying the purest item is known by a grain of impurity - or by reflection of relations. In relation to the above a ‘hammer’ may be used as a bookend instead or a weapon - it could be a war-hammer - but let us assume it is simply a ‘hammer’. Here we see the functional purpose; a war-hammer made for breaking skulls and a toffee-hammer for breaking toffee! We may think of ‘hammer’ as being for hammering nails into walls or for shaping horse-shoes. In all cases the ‘hammer’ is a ‘hammer’ due to ‘hammering’. Now we could just as easily use a brick ‘to hammer’ too, or our hand ‘to hammer’ on a door. In these cases the brick and/or hand are said to be used as ‘a hammer’ yet the intention - if knocking on a door - is not explicitly ‘a hammering’ intention; no nails to be ‘hammered’ or skulls to be ‘hammered’ (the hand hits the door as a ‘tool’ for getting attention not literally as a ‘hammering’ act). This reveals the imprecision of English, the poetry present via analogy and metaphor - a sneaky thing indeed!

    Back to the day-to-day ubiquitous term ‘hammer’. We know a ‘hammer’ is for ‘hammering’ nails, and that other ‘hammer-like’ items are used for other actions. The combining force of these items is possessed in the act of use, or the purpose - the ‘tool’ made to meet a demand. A book is not created for the purpose of ‘hammering’ nails into walls. My intent, in the use of a ay resemble a ‘hammer’ use, but that doesn’t alter the obvious fact that a book’s primary function is not as a tool with which to apply precise kinetic force to a nail. We may still find ourselves asking “is a ‘hammer’ a ‘hammer’ because of the ‘hammering’?”; both go nowhere! This does reveal that the item we call a ‘hammer’ is based upon its purposeful creation as an item to apply a precise, and concentrated, kinetic force to another item in order to create some ‘event’ - to shift, drive and/or produce sounds. Symbolically the ‘hammer’ possesses ‘power’ and ‘precision’ - hence ‘hammer home a point’; metaphorically its misuse can easily result in self harm, as much as it can physically!

    What is also apparent is that we can ‘ask’ for a ‘hammer’ and receive one. We don’t even need to utter any words to do so. We can ask ostensively - by way of mime or gesture referring to an action. This tells us that meaning of the item ‘hammer’ is an extension of the action ‘to hammer’ - the ‘hammering,’ if not in actual naming, precedes the ‘hammer’. The creation of the specific tool ‘hammer’ is only apparent to use by its prerequisite need in a practical life situation to ease the burden if work. It is essentially a conjured ‘object’ made physical to assist - it is ‘efficiency-physically-manifest’. The thought of ‘efficiency’ though, is never felt in its birth. Only once it’s offshoot is perceived, and habitual to experience, can ‘efficiency’ be alluded to - and ONLY alluded to - as its shadow is cast forward. By the accident of efficiency and, importantly, an attraction to efficiency, can purposeful creation come into being - the crafting of ‘tools’ as an ‘instinct’ for ‘efficiency’. In this sense the physical object ‘hammer’ and the concept ‘hammer’ are revealed as alien to each other even though, in our worldly life, we frame them as synonymous: intricately woven into each other simply because of a shared communicable word (spoken/written) colloquial exchanges.

    Through the appropriation of experiences, framed in the current perception, the item of ‘efficiency’ nascently emerges as a thought of physical interaction with the world and is captured once articulated - be this adumbration by the lexicon possessed, and/or (likely ‘and’) through ostensive revelation. What is apparent here is the flourishing of concepts produced. With ‘efficiency’ ‘technique’ forms out of mere ‘difference’; meaning where items were once merely differentiated by size, shape, sound or any other banal physical features, they are now appreciated - or ‘reconstituted’ - in a landscape of ‘value,’ of degrees of technical use for more specific tasks: hence the birth of the ‘toffee-hammer’ and ‘paper knives’.

    In an analogous sense what we can see here is as open ‘theatre’ upon which we throw ‘characters’ of our experience - the ‘theatre’ being a stage of possibilities vying for attention from the perceiving audience. We place the ‘hammer’ on the stage and mirror the interactions that grab our immediate attention. The most intriguing aspect of this analysis is that we don’t know how our ‘characters’ are going to perform. We can, and do, at least dress them up at we deem suitable attire or place them on this or that scene - but they are essentially there to show us what they are and are existent only because they are not fully developed or understood by us. If they charm us further, beyond mere selection, we mimic them and come to understand the deficiencies and benefits they exude when we take on their role. As an example of a ‘character’ let us return to the ‘hammer’. We don’t cast the character ‘hammer’ onto a stage for ‘writing’. As a tool of ‘writing’ the ‘hammer’ may be cast alongside a ‘stone tablet’ though, and would work in the narrative more efficiently with a chisel. If there was ‘paper’ one would not cast ‘hammer’ in this play though, it would not even get an audition!

    What use is such an analogy? What roles are being played? What is the theme? To explain we use our ‘hammer’. Let us imagine a generic ‘hammer’, and I expect most of us will conjure up the image of a regular ‘hammer’ used for bashing nails into walls and such. What needs to be addressed here is that not everyone will conjure the image of this particular hammer type; there being an array of ‘hammers’ as previously mentioned and that in the subjective experiences held by people the ‘hammer’ we bring to mind may not resemble a ‘hammer’ o some distant person - our biased exposure to some ‘hammer’ of childhood years forms a generic nature of the ‘hammer’ we conjure up now. Even so, what we mean in a universal sense, is to refer to a physical object that we’ve held, seen held by another, or understand as a physical object used for ‘hammering’ in some situation. It is this physical object, as a character of being, that is placed on the stage. The abstract nature of the concept ‘hammer’ is envisioned as some generic physical item. What the character then performs is a non-physical, non-solid act - enter the creation of the ‘abstract’. In its infancy this theatre is occupied by a variety of concrete objects, and it is through their relations and expressions performed upon the stage, that the ‘abstract’ objects emerge - such concepts as ‘efficiency’ manifest slowly like spontaneous plumes of smoke eventually condensing into a solid form. Such items are differentiated because they are non-physical. We can never hold ‘efficiency’ in our hand or share a static physical image of ‘efficiency’ as it is a conjunction, the air and lives of the concrete characters upon the stage (the plots and intrigues themselves). Fleeting or ephemeral as such characters may be they nevertheless intrigue us, and by doing so manifest as characters on the stage called “enigma,” “curiosity,” and “intrigue”. I hope it goes without saying that the evidence for these phantasms can be seen throughout all cultural mythos. The most ancient representations being iterations and amalgams of love, death, beauty and evil. Often, if not always (?), pantheons of gods encapsulate a whole spectrum of features related to their primary core; the ‘hammer’ being one such instance of items associated with mythical beings and historical figures.

    It would be foolish to assume the script is inculcated; that each rendition will be verbatim of the previous viewing. The theatre of the mind must possess a semi-permanent existence though, or all would be indistinguishable; therefore unknown and unknowable - be this by way of illusion or delusional presentations. Any ‘absolute’ mask given common parse (‘all,’ ‘infinite,’ ‘permanent,’ etc.,.) is appreciated as an ideal means of representing the extreme end of an idea, NOT as something actually ‘absolute’ in some unimaginable fashion - for reasons too explicit to bother attending to! Meaning opposites are set up - or ‘proposed’ - as a means to orientate thought around a communicable medium (aka ‘language’, such as in this written instance).

    The ‘hammer’ is then an ‘experience’ and a ‘perception’ that drifts into the theatre of consciousness in the spirit of ‘efficiency’ - perceived and experienced, cast to a future outcome and driven by memory. This is NOT to say ‘experience’ is set in the past and ‘perception’ is cast in the potential future. As stated earlier ‘experience’ and ‘perception’ exist at every conscious moment and differ - as defined - as temporal-directional-facing. This renders a rough definition of ‘hammer’ as a temporal-directional-facing of efficiency-physically-manifest. Where this appears to lead us is to a ubiquitous definition applicable to all human action or thought. What is not a ‘temporal-directional-facing of efficiency-physically-manifest’? If we are to remove the ‘physical’ what kind of ‘manifestation’ would we need to consider in its stead? This is a complex matter of linguistic hoodwinking; a kind of fixedness, set kn language. Here lies the commonly termed ‘explanatory gap’. The circularity is that ‘hammer’ is not ‘physical’. When it comes to cognitive thought (or rather, worded thought) the ‘hammer’ I can hold in my hand is no more physical than the thought of holding the ‘hammer’ in my hand - separated as it is be from sensation by some degree. The ‘hammer’ is a manifestation; a conceptual framing of the world of intentions and interactions - a tailored term made to fit the frame within an imagined frame. The ‘hammer’ is an adumbration that can be put to task relative to shifting experience and perception.

    What is to be taken from this essay? I hope that the use of ‘perception’ and ‘experience’ offer the reader tools to play with and that the reduction of human activity to the principle of ‘efficiency’ is worth consideration too. The analogous use of ‘theatre’ does require greater elucidation though, from what I can tell.
  • fishfry
    2.6k
    Let us imagine a generic ‘hammer’, and I expect most of us will conjure up the image of a regular ‘hammer’ used for bashing nails into walls and such.I like sushi

    I immediately thought of MC Hammer. What does that mean?

    Then of course there's Hammer films, the great producer of horror movies. And Mike Hammer, the famous fictional private eye. What does it all mean? I thought of Dag Hammarskjöld, the UN Secretary General in the 1950's. Many such associations are imprinted in my neural pathways. It truly is a mystery how all that works. Something about Proust's cup of tea. One thought leads to another. You know, the smartypants types who think all this can be encapsulated into electronic neural networks are missing a lot. We have no idea how the mind works, but it's far stranger than logic can sort out.
  • counterpunch
    1.6k
    What is to be taken from this essay?I like sushi

    Any reference to Heidegger, apparently!

    The circularity is that ‘hammer’ is not ‘physical’. When it comes to cognitive thought (or rather, worded thought) the ‘hammer’ I can hold in my hand is no more physical than the thought of holding the ‘hammer’ in my handI like sushi

    Bang in a nail with the thought of holding a hammer, and I'll eat my literal hat!
  • I like sushi
    4.3k
    Not sure what you’re getting at with Heidegger comment or the need for an exclamation mark?

    I think you missed the point there. I was saying the word ‘hammer’ isn’t physical but we treat it as being physical (as you just did above).
  • I like sushi
    4.3k
    @fishfry The smartypants types know quite a bit about how the brain functions and their knowledge can do anyway false assumptions that our rational mind makes.

    I find language to be an intriguing concept. I wasn’t really trying to focus on stream of consciousness, but I guess it does tie into inhibition of return (IOR) which is a common feature of neuro-cognitive function.
  • Adams
    2
    Hello. It's nice to read smart thoughts. Write more
  • skyblack
    545
    @I like sushi

    You have put some effort in this essay. I have not read the complete essay since it is pretty long but i saw the first paragraph is the thesis, and the rest is in support of the first.

    The errors in the first para can be corrected if one understands perception to be simply a faculty, which it is, and is not dependent on thinking or experiencing. Perception exists free of both, but both need perception for their existence. The question of perception "driving forward", or towards any direction doesn't arise, since it doesn't. It only appears to do so when it is is mingled with thought-emotion-feeling. Thought-E-F being the same as "thinking and experiencing".
  • Adams
    2

    Basically, I agree
  • skyblack
    545


    I should have mentioned something else. What was said in previous post has no potency if it is only intellectually understood, debated, agreed or disagreed etc. Such activities don't bring any change in our lives. We simply carry on after the activity is over. The beauty of an insight (which is not the same as accumulated knowledge or analysis), is that it is transformative, instantly, without any evasion of the 'tomorrow'. A tomorrow that never comes.It seems to me, it is this transformation in one's life and living, which is the essence of the human aspirations.
  • creativesoul
    11.4k
    Physiological sensory perception is part of experience. Divorcing the two leads to misunderstanding both.
  • skyblack
    545
    Oh and perhaps i should add to my previous post,

    attempts at entrapment is the work of the mind, a repository of "experiences "

    otherwise physiology doesn't know entrapment, it never has and never will,

    its response is always direct and immediate. It 'addresses" everything/everyone directly,

    either in responding to a challenge or in throwing a challenge,

    but such a beautiful direct precise instrument has pretty much been snuffed out of its capacities by.....
  • I like sushi
    4.3k
    It is a short essay. I defined the terms and how I would use them in the opening section. If you bundle in and argue against how I use them it is useless to read further.

    Trust that I mean it when I say:

    The difference of ‘perception’ and ‘experience’, in this essay, will be considered thus ... ‘perception’ being the amalgam of sensible ‘experience’, where experiences are ‘after’ sensible input (of content receding into the past and drawn on to form the present context - the ‘perception’). To differentiate with more clarity between ‘perceive’ and ‘experience’ it will serve to view ‘experience’ as that which ‘moves’ back through time; a receding thought. Whilst ‘perceive’ is a reversal fo this; the ‘feedback’ - perceptions brought forward to culminate in the moment alongside, not apart from, ‘experience’. To sum up, Perception ‘drives’ forward and Experience ‘drives’ backward, yet they exist parallel/entwined in the now and are known as one unity pulled in different temporal orientations; attracted as they are toward temporal poles (future and past) yet BOTH in equal possession of said poles. This is akin to the ancient Greek titans, “Prometheus” and “Epimetheus.” The brothers representing ‘foresight’ and ‘hindsight’ respectively; or Perception (perceptive) and Experience (memory). Note: Epimetheus was often depicted as being ‘foolish’.I like sushi

    I have reframe the terms ‘perception’ and ‘experience’ for the purpose of the essay. Do not take it out of context.
  • skyblack
    545


    At the time of my post (25 days ago) I felt obligated to correct the errors as they were spreading incorrect information. It is not that one does it all the time but I happened to see the essay and spontaneously felt like posting a correction note. Since it appeared that you are interested in the subjects of perception and experience, but simply lack the clarity, one felt you might appreciate a contribution.

    You may backtrack on the errors and call it "reframing", but please be careful posting incorrect information that may mislead people.Now,if there is anything you will like to discuss about the corrections i have made we can do that. Or we can stop now and no further exchange is needed.
  • I like sushi
    4.3k
    I was not spreading misinformation. I used terms and defined them specifically and even just quoted where I did this?

    I am extremely open to criticisms and feedback. Trust me there though when I say you have got the wrong end of the stick. I was certainly not backtracking on errors as you put it. I was just telling you that I said I was using the terms as I stated and to then throw that back at me as ‘misinformation’ is disingenuous or misunderstanding - I would usually assume the latter but given that I literally pointed out what exactly I said this may be in vain :D

    There is no thesis btw. I was doing precisely what I said I was doing and it would have tied in to the use of the term/concept ‘hammer’ if you had read to the end.

    It was part of an attempt to write something within a 2000 word limit but this was a hard task as I could have written practically endlessly. It is far from perfect for sure.
  • skyblack
    545


    You forgot to ping, but i had a feeling a response would come. Then there are those that ping, but can't make themselves admit if you show up.

    It is far from perfect for sure.I like sushi

    Actually the post is good. As you can see another poster has liked it so much he or she wants you to write more.
  • Agent Smith
    9.5k
    Experience of perception: No choice. I like this painting.

    Perception of experience: Choice. What kinda a frame would you prefer for the painting sir/ma'am?

    :joke:
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