John+Ndoli+Humphrey

__John Ndoli Humphrey__

Hi JOHN!!Sept 17th 2009 Assignment 3 (due 28th September by noon)

Reflect on the following questions and write answers to up to three of them - you should write a total of at least 400 words, but you can stick to just one question if you prefer, or answer two or three more briefly.

**Nature of sense perception** • In what ways does the biological constitution of a living organism determine, influence or limit its sense perception? If humans are sensitive only to certain ranges of stim What possibilities for knowledge are opened to us by our senses as they are? What limitations • Is the nature of sense perception such that, as Huxley suggests, sensations are essentially private In my opinion humas have abilitys to understand and to thick. and they have different languages we have learned that people ho speak different languages think differently and he flukes of grammer can profoundly affect how we see the world. language is gift to humans central to our experience of being humans. "By its very nature every embodied spirit is doomed to suffer and enjoy in solitude. Sensations, feelings, insights, fancies—all these are private and, except through symbols and at second hand, incommunicable." Aldous Huxley (1954) I**mportance and limitations of sense perception** • To what extent do our senses give us knowledge of the world as it really is? • What is the role of culture and language in the perceptual process? Given the partially subjective nature of sense perception, how can different knowers ever agree on what is perceived? Do people with different cultural or linguistic backgrounds live, in some sense, in different worlds? • How, and to what extent, might expectations, assumptions and beliefs affect sense perceptions? How, if at all, can factors that bias our views of the world be identified? Is all sense perception necessarily theory-laden? Do knowers have a moral duty to examine their own perceptual filters? • It is often claimed that information and communication technologies are blurring the traditional distinctions between simulation and reality. If this is so, what might be the consequences?

hI mRS. rolberts